Kindred Souls
by dantesdarkqueen
Summary: A man and his daughter visit the village to sell horses to the Tachibana house, and the daughter discovers a special connection with its only surviving son. ItsukiXOC. The saga comes to an end with Chapter 11, Eternity.
1. Arrival

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

The Visitors

Michiko Shibata watched as the village came closer to them, and she felt a sudden intuition about the place. _Something isn't right_, she thought. Involuntarily, her hand closed about the two charms she wore about her neck. Her father, noticing the movement, turned to look at her.

"Is something wrong, my daughter?"

"No, honorable father." She continued to stare at the village gate, her sixth sense tugging at her mind urgently. "I just... I feel..."

"Your mother's Gift again, I see." Kisho smiled at his daughter sympathetically. "Your mother, Michi, would be begging me to leave right about now, if you were her. She feared her Gift. But you do not."

"Because it only shows what is already there. What most people are blind to, I can see." Michiko willed herself to let go of the polished stone charms, and took the reins in both hands once more. "A blessing as well as a curse. Ignorance is bliss, after all."

"Perhaps your Gift will calm down once we reach the house of Hiroshi Tachibana, and find our shelter therein." Kisho patted the neck of his stallion, the bay horse whickering softly at his touch. "Once he sees these horses, I am sure he will be willing to barter more than his original offer."

Michiko smiled softly. Her father had only two loves in life: his daughter and his horses. Through careful breeding, he had managed to create a superior line of horse, one of the best in all of Japan. The reason they had come to All God's Village in the first place was to bargain away some of the young colts and fillies of the past two years, each of them already broken to the bit and the saddle, as well as the plow. Hiroshi Tachibana was very interested in purchasing some of the famous Shibata horses, and had invited Kisho and his daughter Michiko to his home while the bargaining was done.

She looked back to the colt and filly they had brought with them as evidence of their offer. A beautiful black filly Michiko had come to love named Akira, and a chestnut colt her father had named 'Kin' for the golden sheen of his coat. She would be sad to see Akira go, but as long as she would have a good home here, Michiko would be content.

They dismounted from their horses once they passed through the gate, and tied the animals to a handy post. The horses, obediant and fond of their riders, would stay in place even if they were not tied. Another of the qualities which made the Shibata horses so coveted throughout the land.

Michiko and her father approached a man standing just inside the gate, a servant of Tachibana. "Come, honorable guests. I shall take you to the Tachibana house that you may find rest."

"When will Tachibana meet with me to discuss the horses?" Kisho inquired politely.

"He is very occupied with family matters at the moment, sir. I must regretfully inform you that it may be a day or two before he can meet with you concerning the horses. But he did say to tell you that you and your daughter are to have full run of the house. His home will be as yours for as long as you stay in All God's Village."

"Tachibana is very generous, as his name would say," Kisho noted. "Lead us to the house, then. I am very tired from the long journey, and I am sure that my daughter is as well."

Michiko decided not to tell him that she was, in fact, almost energized by the novelty of this place, despite the warnings of her Gift. There was a kind of timeless beauty to All God's Village that intrigued her, and she wanted to explore the house where she and her father would be staying. Perhaps there was someone her age she could speak with.

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Itsuki finished writing in his diary for the day, and carefully sprinkled sand across the wet ink so it would dry faster. Bored, he went to the window and looked down at the grounds below.

Nothing ever changed in All God's Village. Even after the horrors of the festival, when all the villagers _knew_ what he had had to do, everybody was just as cheerful and smiling as ever. Not even his mother and father seemed to notice the burden which he carried.

_Mutsuki..._

He fingered a lock of his white hair.

"Itsuki, you never did tell me why your hair turned white."

The sweet voice of his little sister, Chitose, turned him away from the window to face the doorway. She stood just inside the door, her hands hidden behind her back. The gentle tinkle of the bells he had given her had gone unheard in his dark musings.

He offered her a sad smile. It hurt to feel happy, he didn't _want _to feel happiness, but he couldn't let Chitose know what he had been forced to do. She was the only person in the village who didn't know anything about the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. "I don't know why it turned white, sister. It just did."

Chitose fidgeted. "Mother said there are visitors coming to stay in the house. A man bringing horses, and his daughter."

"And you are scared. Is that it?"

She lowered her eyes. "People scare me."

Itsuki went to her, stroked her jet-black hair. "I won't let the visitors do anything to you, Chitose. Don't worry about it."

Her eyes lifted, searching his. "I'd feel better if both you and Mutsuki were here. Where is he? Nobody will tell me."

Itsuki turned away, retreated to the window. "I... I can't tell you, sister."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

He heard the jingling of the bells, and Chitose came to stand beside him, peering out the window. "What's out there? I can't really tell."

"Those eyes of yours again." He smiled kindly down at his little sister, letting her know he was only teasing her, and turned to the window. "Let's see. There's Aiko Tsuchihara getting a doll from the Kiryu house, probably for her daughter Hana. Tatsu Osaka is walking with that one girl, Estu. And..."

His voice trailed off. One of the family servants, Yasashiku, was leading a man and a girl to the house. The man was middle-aged, dressed in a dark robe tied with a black cloth. Even from this distance, Itsuki could see that his black hair was beginning to gray at the temples. That would be the horse-breeder his father was planning on buying from, Kisho Shibata.

The girl following close behind was wearing a pale blue kimono. Her black hair was long and flowing, an inky sheen down her back and sides. Her skin was moonlight pale, and from what little he could see, she possessed great beauty. She looked to be about his age, sixteen.

"Itsuki?" Chitose tugged at his sleeve. "Itsuki? Why did you stop? What do you see?"

He didn't answer. Below them, Yasashiku opened the front doors and led the visitors inside. He regained his tongue once the beauteous creature he had glimpsed was out of his immediate sight. He turned to his sister.

"The visitors have arrived."

The simple statement made Chitose's eyes widen in sudden fear. Without a word, she ran away, the bells jangling as she fled for the safety of her closet.

Itsuki looked back to the window, and then down at the floor. The visitors were directly beneath his room right now.

He wanted to meet the girl.


	2. Meeting of the Guests

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight. Sorry if I get some of the rooms mixed up or mis-named; I don't have their order or placement memorized.

Meeting of the Guests

Michiko and her father were taken into the grand hall of the Tachibana house, where they were told that the Lady of the house awaited them in her husband's stead. Kneeling on soft cushions was a middle-aged woman, her hair done in an elegant bun, her hands folded upon her pristine white kimono. She appeared to have once been possessed of great beauty, now fading as her life marched onward. She smiled as the Shibatas approached her and bowed in greeting. "Welcome to the house of Tachibana, honored guests. I am Keiko Tachibana, Lady of the house. In my husband's absence, I will act as your host. Please, enjoy free access to our home and grounds."

"Please accept our thanks, Lady Tachibana. I am Kisho Shibata, the owner of the Shibata Stables, and this is my daughter Michiko. We will freely partake of that which you offer, but not in abundance. This is not our home, after all."

"We appreciate your restraint, Mr. Shibata. We get so few visitors to our village; of course we are a bit wary of freely granting such access. But my most generous husband would wish it done, and so it shall be." Lady Tachibana gestured to the servant who had brought them in. "Yasashiko will show you to your rooms. Your daughter will be sleeping near our children's rooms, and you shall be closer to our room. I am sure that you must be weary. Yasashiko will be near if you require anything while you rest from your long journey."

"The horses must be properly cared for before my daughter and I may rest," Kisho protested.

"I will send servants to bring the horses into the stables which we have prepared for them. They shall receive the best feed we have availible for the duration of your visit. Now, rest. You are safe here."

"You are very kind, Lady Tachibana." Father and daughter bowed once more, which she acknowledged with a graceful bending of her neck. "Come, Michiko. Let us go to our rooms."

Michiko followed her father and the servant upstairs and into the familial quarters. Her father was shown his room first, and Yasashiko took her to her quarters once he had been settled in. Her rooms were across the house from her father's, which she found a little strange. In her home, her room was just down the hall from his.

"Are there many children in this house?" she asked.

"Only a few, Lady Michiko. There are a few among we humble servants, but only two born to the house of Tachibana. There is a girl, but do not expect to see her. She is very shy of strangers to the house. There is also a son of your age. There was another son, but he died in a tragic accident only weeks ago."

"Oh." Michiko looked down, and turned to look at a closet as they passed. She could have sworn she'd just heard bells coming from behind the closed panel. "Is there any chance I will meet the son? It would be nice to have someone to talk to."

"I would not count on it, Lady Michiko. He was deeply affected by the loss of his brother. So deeply, in fact, that his hair has turned white and he spends much of his time locked in his room. I fear you may be spending your time alone during your stay in All God's Village."

_How wonderful, _Michiko thought. _First my sixth sense goes off, and now I will have no one to talk to. There is Akira, but she is a horse and does not talk back. If only Chi-oh..."_

She roughly cut off the thought. She did not wish to think of such depressing things right now.

"Here is your room, Lady Michiko. Call for me if you require anything." Yasashiko bowed and departed, leaving Michiko alone in a large room. She sighed softly, and knelt upon the pallet spread upon the floor, her bed, to unpack her satchel. She had only brought one spare kimono, and her father had only brought one spare robe. Neither had anticipated a long stay in the village. However, she had brought several changes of undergarments and cloths to wrap around her kimono, several colors of _obi_. And of course she had brought her diary, the blue book with the lotus-flower upon the front in which she recorded her thoughts. This was what she took out now.

Taking out a writing stick and dipping it in the pot of ink she had brought, she began to shape the graceful calligraphic characters which flowed so beautifully from her fingers, a talent for which she was envied back home.

_Father and I have arrived in All God's Village with the horses. Nothing unanticipated occured on our journey, and we are now in the Tachibana house. We have free run of the house, and I plan to explore once Father is occupied with the bargaining. Mr. Tachibana was greatly interested in Father's horses, and he is sure we can get a great deal of yen for them. _

_If only Mr. Tachibana would show up, we could get out of here. My sixth sense, the Gift of my mother, has not stopped bothering me since we arrived. I feel a kind of dread, and hopeless despair, as if something terrible has occured in this place and soon shall again. There is no reason for me to feel this, but I do. This forest, this village, is beautiful, and I wish I could enjoy them, but I cannot stop feeling as if something is going to happen. Something horrible. _

_It would be better if I had someone to talk to. I was told by a servant that there is a boy my age in this house, and a young girl, but that same servant has told me not to expect to see them. Apparently the girl is sensitive and shy, and the family has recently lost one of their sons, to whom the remaining boy was extremely close to. I understand what it is like to lose someone you love very much. Unless he approaches me, I shall not intrude upon his solitude. But it is quite maddening; his room is just across the hall from mine, a very short distance to walk. I have no one to speak with, to occupy my time and from whom to learn more about the village. _

_Chi-oh... Sister, how I miss you._

"Welcome to our home, honored guest."

Michiko jumped, so unexpected was the voice. Her pen scratched across the page, an ugly smear of ink marring the smooth surface. She looked up, an angry retort leaping to her lips...

And subsequently dying away. Standing in the doorway was a handsome boy of her own age, his hair as white as hers was black. He was dressed in a white kimono, a pendant of crystal ore hanging about his neck. His eyes, a shade of blue to match her own, gazed solemnly at her.

When their eyes met, it felt as if a jolt of lightening had passed through her body. From the widening of his eyes, she guessed he had felt it too.

_What was that?_ she wondered.

"I accept your greetings," she quickly said, to cover up the strangeness of the situation. "I am Michiko Shibata, the daughter of Kisho Shibata, the owner of Shibata Stables."

"I am Itsuki Tachibana, son of Hiroshi Tachibana."

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

_Was that...Soul-touch?_ Itsuki pondered, as stunned as Michiko by the electrical-like feeling which had striken his body and mind for a brief moment, when their eyes had met. _I had thought it to be just a myth..._

"Then you are the son of which I have been told. I was afraid... I would not meet anyone my age during my stay." She had a voice as musical as she was beautiful. Itsuki had his mother, once the most lovely woman in the village, for comparison; this girl was even lovelier than Keiko was rumored to have been in her youth.

"I did not wish to miss out on the chance to speak with someone from outside the village. After all, there is really no one my age around here, either." _Not even Yae or Sae can fulfill that void... _

"You have no friends?" She was looking at him now, inquisitive.

"None." _Apart from Mutsuki... _

"I can sympathize. I had no friends back home, either." She bowed her head and one hand reached up to clutch the white pendant around her neck, leaving the blue one alone against her flesh.

Itsuki felt that he had to spend more time with her. She had no reason to feel sadness; it almost seemed second-nature to want to make her happy. "Would you like me to show you around the house? A guided tour?"

She lifted her head and smiled at him; he felt as if he had been blessed by a goddess. Why was she making him feel this way? "I would like that." She rose gracefully and placed her diary open upon the pallet, to give the ink a chance to dry. Michiko then turned back to Itsuki, and followed him out into the hallway.

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

He showed her the house, every last room apart from Mutsuki's. No one save he and Chitose would go in there now. He wouldn't allow it. He had failed his twin in the ritual; now his room served as a shrine to his brother's memory. It remained untouched since the day of the festival, and if he had any say in it, it would remain exactly as Mutsuki had left it. At one point, hearing the jingling again, Michiko commented upon the bells.

"Where are the bells being rung?" she asked. "I have not seen any about the house."

Itsuki had grin. "The bells are carried by my little sister. She has a small problem with her eyes, and I gave her the bells so I would always know where she was." He paused, and looked at Michiko. He didn't think she would be the type of person Chitose would run away from. "Would you like to meet her?"

"I would, if you please."

"Very well. Stand out of sight. She is very shy." Itsuki knelt down, listening carefully for the bells. When it sounded as if they were very close, he gently tapped on the wooden panel of the closet. "Sister?"

"Itsuki?" The voice was muffled by the wood.

"Will you come out for a moment? I would like you to meet someone."

"A guest?"

"Do you trust me, sister?" His voice was gentle.

A pause, then "Yes."

"Then come out. She will not hurt you, I promise. I won't let her."

The panel moved aside slowly, and Chitose peeked out. Her dark eyes grew wide and fearful when they fell upon Michiko, but she finished crawling out of the closet and flung her arms about Itsuki's waist, seeking protection. "This is Michiko Shibata, the daughter of the man who is selling Father horses. She will not harm you." He gestured for the older girl to come closer, one arm about his sister for comfort.

Michiko approached slowly, then knelt close to the fearful child whose face was buried against her brother's kimono. "You do not have to answer if you wish, but I would like to be your friend. What is your name?" Her voice was soft, motherly.

To Itsuki's astonishment, his sister responded. "Chitose Tachibana."

"That's a beautiful name." Chitose rolled her head slightly, so she could look at the visitor. "You look exactly like your beautiful mother, Chitose. Your name fits you well."

"Thank you." She turned her face back into Itsuki's kimono, still afraid.

Michiko looked up at Itsuki, who was beaming at her. His sister had never responded to a visitor this much before.

"Where did you get such a lovely kimono, Chitose?" she asked, referring to the scarlet kimono that was his sister's favorite, the one she was currently wearing.

His sister looked at her again. "Mother and Father got it for me."

"You know, I have one exactly like this at home. But I never wear it."

"Why not?"

Michiko bit her lip. "It belonged to my sister."

"You have a sister? Where is she?"

Michiko didn't answer. Itsuki recognized the emotions swimming in her sea-colored eyes. How often had he seen them in his own eyes, when he looked into a bowl of still water in the mornings or in the bath-house?

Her sister wasn't here because she was dead.

"Would you be willing to show us the horses, Michiko?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Of course, if Chitose wants to see them."

In response, Chitose did something amazing; she reached out a hand and slipped it into one of Michiko's, even as her head still rested against her brother. Itsuki was stunned by her trust of the visitor, but he knew that Chitose's fear wasn't gone yet. She was still clinging to him for safety.

Michiko, unaware of the novelty of her position, smiled and stood up. With Chitose between them, she followed Itsuki to the stables.


	3. Revelations Part One

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight. Sorry if I get some of the rooms mixed up or mis-named; I don't have their order or placement memorized

Revelations, Part One

_It's been five days now. Still no sign of Mr. Tachibana. His honorable wife still acts the part of host, and apologizes to us each morning for her husband's absence. Father is getting edgy, but holds to the tenents expected of a guest. He stays polite and waits patiently for Mr. Tachibana to appear. _

_I am not so edgy. Itsuki and I have been exploring the forest around the village, and have become great friends. I enjoy spending time with him, and Chitose too. She has begun to trust me, I think, and does not run unless Father is near. She often accompanies me to the stables when I go to check on Akira and Kin, as well as Hana and Haru. A very shy child, but fond of animals. Akira in particular seems fond of her. _

_I have also met two more girls of the village, twins a few years younger than Itsuki and I. Yae and Sae Kurosawa seem like nice girls, Yae in particular, but when I look at them I sense... _

_Something terrible... _

_Catastrophe centers around them. I do not know how or why, but Sae in particular sets off my sixth sense. There is no rhyme or reason to it, but I do not like to be around her. There is a terrible destiny in store for her, and one for Yae as well. But hers does not seem so... wrong. Something terrible is going to happen because of Sae, and something awful is going to happen in the distant future to Yae. Exactly what, I am not so sure I wish to know. I see incomplete images, but nothing more than that. They are so disjointed, I cannot make sense of them. _

_It is strange. Since I have met him, I almost feel as if I must have Itsuki near me at all times. As if I shall go mad if I do not know where he is. I have moved my bed so that it is up against the wall, closest to his room. I have been dreaming of him, for some reason. I've never felt this way about boys before; I have no idea what is happening. What did that lightning-shock mean? Why can I not stop thinking about him? It's almost as if I need him, _hunger_ for him, and I don't know why. I've liked boys before, but never like this. _

_Even stranger is the fact that we can tell what the other is thinking or feeling before the other even says it aloud. We can read each other's minds in the other's eyes. Chitose says it's a connection almost like what Itsuki and Mutsuki, his brother at peace, shared. But she says that the link - or whatever it is - is stronger than what she had witnessed between her brothers. I can sense the strength of it as well; if I close my eyes, and feel with my heart, my mother's Gift reveals to me a glowing rope between us. I can sense it, I know it is there, but I do not know what it means. I feel as if Itsuki knows something I do not, but he will not tell me and I will not force him to. He will tell me when he is ready. I am sure of it. _

_The anniversary of Chi-oh and Mother's... It's today. I am not home, but they still deserve some respect on this day. I will go out into the forest and make small shrines to them beneath a tree, as I do back home, to honor their spirits. I do not think that Itsuki or Chitose shall come with me; I want to do this myself. _

_Alone. _

_As I have for the past twelve years._

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Michiko finished gathering flowers and tree leaves, and piled them into two separate stacks at the base of the tree. She had snuck out of the village some time ago, just after breakfast, and since that time she had been finding the materials she needed to make the memory-shrines. This tree, on the edge of the crystal-clear stream, was perfect for her private ceremony. Carefully, reciting the same prayer she had used for her entire life exclusively on this day, she arranged the humble shrines as she desired, and placed a single flower atop each. Red for her mother, white for her sister.

When she had finished, she continued to kneel before the memory-shrines, lost in thought. "Honorable mother Michi, beloved sister Chi-oh. It has been twelve years now, since Fate took you away from Father and I. I hope that you are happy, and still at peace. I miss you both so much, and look forward to the day when we shall be reunited in the next life." The words slipped from her lips almost unbidden, and a single tear dripped down her cheek to splash on her blue kimono. "This village we are in now, I do not believe you would enjoy it. The Gift you passed on to me, Mother; it has not stopped bothering me since we first arrived. I feel as if something horrible is going to happen here, and that countless atrocities have occured in the past, somewhere nearby. I think I see things when there is nothing there, and when I look at the Kurosawa twins..."

She bowed her head. "I should not trouble you with such despairing thoughts. You are at peace, and do not deserve to worry about us." She gently touched the white amulet she wore, allowing her few remaining memories of her mother and sister to fill her head. "Another year has passed, and we move closer to our reunion. Until we meet again, or another year passes, know that I love you and think of you often. Farewell, Mother, Chi-oh."

A soft rustle of leaves, coming from behind her, and the intangible rope between her and the son of Tachibana seemed to tug at her senses. She turned her head so he could see her anger.

"What are you doing here?"

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Itsuki could feel the fury she was keeping tightly reined in, sensed it from the link and the tone of her voice. He decided it was in his best interest not to lie. "I saw you run off into the forest, and I was afraid for you. I am sorry, if I offended you." He came into view, and bowed in apology. "I should have let you know I was here."

"I could tell you were here anyway. I just wanted to finish my ceremony before I commented on it."

He took a seat on a nearby rock, smoothing his hands over his dark blue kimono. "Might I ask, what happened?"

"To my mother and sister?"

"Yes."

She sighed softly. "I've never told anyone before. It's...difficult to speak of it, especially since Chi-oh was more than a sister. She was my twin."

"Oh." Itsuki lowered his eyes, his white hair falling to hide them from view. "You do not have to speak of it." _She was a twin as well?_

Michiko pushed a lock of her black tresses behind one ear, offered him a sad smile. "I suppose I shall have to speak of it sometime, or I shall never heal. Speaking is a part of the healing process of early trauma, is that right?"

"So I am told."

"Then I shall speak. I trust you, Itsuki. It is strange, but I trust you, more than I do anybody back home."

_Part of the Soul-touch again,_ Itsuki thought. _Another sign of that which we share. _Then he turned his attention back to the young woman, for whom his feelings were growing more and more everyday.

"It happened when Chi-oh and I were only four years old. I was the younger twin, but she was more delicate than I. For as long as I can remember, I have protected her. But I couldn't protect her then. I failed her on this exact day, twelve years ago..."

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

_Michiko laughed as her mother tossed her the ball once more, kicking it across the grass to Chi-oh. Her twin sister smiled, delight in her sea-blue eyes, and rolled it back to her. The younger sister went to her twin as she frowned in pain._

_"Does your chest hurt again?"_

_"It always does. I'll catch the ball with Mommy, all right?" _

_"All right. Let me help you." Michiko helped her sister over to their mother, who sighed and smoothed some hair away from her elder daughter's face. _

_"Are you all right?" she asked, a mother's concern soft in her voice. _

_"Yes, Mommy. Just let me sit here with you while Michiko rolls us the ball, all right?" _

_"Of course, my little flower. Here you go." Michi lifted her into her lap, helped her find a comfortable position before nodding to Michiko. Her younger daughter smiled and rolled the ball to her mother and sister._

_Across the courtyard, their father, Michi's husband Kisho, was talking to the stablehands about a fine young stallion they had purchased at the last horse market in the city. He offered his beloved wife and daughters a loving smile as they played with the ball before running a hand along the horse's withers. He would be a fine stud for his mares. Fast and powerful, exactly what he had desired in a stud-stallion._

_Chi-oh laughed as she caught the ball once more and rolled it back to her sister, their mother's arms holding her secure within the nest made by her crossed legs. The sun shone clearly above, a perfectly-cut diamond on a sea of blue silk. It was a perfect day. Chi-oh's amulet, a perfect mate to the blue one worn by her sister, caught the sunlight as she lifted her head on a wave of mirth. _

_The stablehand shouted in alarm; the stallion had broken loose. Maddened by something, the stallion reared and pounded across the courtyard._

_Straight for the woman and her twin daughters._

_Michi screamed and tried to get out of the way; Chi-oh's weight impaired her efforts. The woman yelled for Michiko to run, desperately trying to get her older daughter off her, to throw her to safety. _

_Chi-oh, terrified, clung to her mother like a cat to a comfortable piece of cloth. Michiko screamed her sister's name._

_And then it was over._

_The horse raced on, past the entwined forms, heading for the open gates. Michiko looked on, terrified. Helpless. _

_Her father and the grooms were there a moment later. Two of the men went after the stallion, the others skidded to a stop before the bodies._

_Michi lay on top, her back broken from her efforts to shield her daughter. She still breathed, but Michiko knew it wouldn't be for long. The damage was just too extensive._

_Her twin's hand extended from beneath her mother's body, the fingers gently curled. Limp. _

_"Chi-oh!" she screamed._

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

"Mother lasted for a few more hours, before dying in the bed she had shared with Father. Chi-oh was killed instantly." Michiko took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her hand tightened on Itsuki's; when had she taken his hand? "Father wanted to kill the horse, but I begged him not to. Too many lives had already been lost that day. I couldn't stand the thought that the stallion would die when it probably wasn't even aware of what it had done."

She wiped a few stray tears away. "Perhaps it was for the better. Chi-oh had a weak heart; the doctor told our parents soon after our birth that she would most likely not live to adulthood. She is not in pain anymore."

"I understand. Mutsuki can suffer no more as well," Itsuki replied softly. His thumb stroked over the back of Michiko's hand softly. Offering comfort.

She held up the amulets around her neck, two polished pieces of stone that resembled the opposing sides of a Chinese yin-yang, minus the eyes. "We were given these when we were born. Chi-oh got the white one, since she was born first. I was given the blue. When she died, I took the amulet from her neck. Even if she was gone from me in life, a part of my twin would always be with me." She let them fall back into the kimono. "There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss her. Her and Mother."

Itsuki looked at the small memorial-shrines. "Can you teach me how to make one of those? I would like to make one for Mutsuki."

Michiko looked up, and saw the pain in his eyes. A pain she had often seen in her own eyes. "Was he your twin?" she asked in a sudden flash of intuition.

He was startled. "How did you know that?"

"It takes one to know one, I suppose." She stood, his hand still in her own. "I am sorry."

"It is all right. I feel much the same. Mutsuki is gone, but he is always with me. We are one again." _Even if I did fail him in the ritual..._

"I can understand." She led him into the forest. "Come on. Let's get the material for his memory-shrine."


	4. Revelations Part Two

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight. Sorry if I get some of the rooms mixed up or mis-named; I don't have their order or placement memorized

**Author On Her Knees** Hey readers! I just wanted to do the whole "please review, I need reviews, I go crazy if I don't get reviews" thing. Only eleven hits? I knew that this story's central romance figures aren't exactly popular, and I am taking some serious creative liberties, but _come on_. Can I at least get a bone for my efforts? Do you honestly think that my work sucks this badly? Tell me!

Revelations Part Two

His work completed, Itsuki sat back on his heels to look at the memory-shrine. He had modeled it after the pair Michiko had constructed for her mother and sister, but had used a water-smoothed stone from the stream rather than a flower. It reminded him of his brother; deep strength and gentleness despite the weakness of the outer shell. Bowing his head, he sent a silent prayer to his brother's spirit, wherever it was, and told him that he would keep his promise. He would get Yae and Sae out of the village before they had to perform the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, even if it cost him his life.

Michiko was sitting on the stone he had perched on before, her head resting on her drawn-up knees. Her eyes regarded him with sympathy, and something he wasn't sure he could read. Affection?

The thought sent a small shiver through him. The Soul-touch, demanding to be fulfilled.

Michiko felt it too. She shook lightly, as if a sudden cold breeze had whistled against her neck, and looked at Itsuki with wide blue eyes. Doubtless she had felt the tug of the bond as well. _What is this?_ he heard her mind question.

He weighed the pros and cons of telling her the truth. She was foreign to the village, so it was likely that she would not believe in the Soul-touch; from what he had discerned, very few places outside All God's Village still believed in the bond. Perhaps she would think him crazy, and turn from him in disgust when he explained what the Soul-touch demanded of them. Perhaps she would be frightened by the concept that he could almost read her mind.

But perhaps she would accept it. After all, she had a Gift for the supernatural, so she knew such things could occur. If she did accept, they could fulfill the demands of the Soul-bond tonight, staving off the physical pain that accompanied an unfulfilled bond. They had been spared that thus far, but who could tell how long it would be before the link began to punish them for not giving in and accepting the bond?

If nothing else, she would know about it.

"Would you like to know what this link between us is, Michiko?" he asked, not looking at her.

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Michiko stared at him. _I knew he knew something!_ "Yes, of course I would." She scooted over on the stone, making room for him. "Would you like to sit here? Kneeling on the ground is not very comfortable."

He got up, brushing off the front of the kimono. "You are right, of course. It isn't very comfortable." Itsuki took a seat beside her, still not looking at her. "Now, where to begin?"

"All God's Village is one of the very few which still practices old rituals and beliefs long since abandoned by most of Japan. We are a very superstitious lot, and so a lot of the old myths and legends still live among us. One of these legends is that of the Soul-touch."

Another tremor ran through Michiko's body when he said that. Her Gift sparked briefly before calming, allowing her to listen to his soft-spoken words.

"Soul-touch is supposed to be soulmates recognizing each other. When they come into contact, a bond is forged through a meeting of the eyes, a link as unbreakable as steel. The soulmates can sense each other's feelings, and almost read their very minds. They know what the other is thinking and feeling, and the desire to make the other happy is all that matters when they are together."

_This sounds familiar... Is it possible?_

"Furthermore, the Soul-touch is a way of ensuring that a child will be born to the soulmates. In fact, the bond must be consumated, the child must be concieved, if physical pain is to be avoided."

"The bond causes pain?" Michiko asked.

"Only if the bond fails to be consumated. If one or both soulmates refuses to give in to the demands of the link, both will suffer."

"What do you mean by 'consumated?' What exactly does the bond demand that the soulmates do?" She already knew the answer, but she wanted confirmation of that which her Gift had told her.

Itsuki was blushing now. "It wants... The soulmates must act as man and wife, and concieve a child. In a way, they are already married. If you are chosen for someone, you cannot be happy with anybody else. If one soulmate strays, in fact, it can cause greivious harm to the other."

"I see." Michiko took his hand once more. "How common is this Soul-touch?"

"Extremely rare. The theory is that everyone has a soulmate, but very few people actually find them. Once they have found each other, however, they cannot be completely separated. Physically, yes, but not in heart. You never forget the one person who is mated to your soul." He looked to their clasped hands, his expression unreadable. "Nobody in the village has this bond at the moment. I think the last people who had a Soul-touch were the Dollmaker and his honorable wife, who died in child-birth several years ago. Were it not out of duty to his newborn twin daughters, I think he would have joined his beloved soulmate in death rather than continue alone."

"We share this bond, do we not?"

The question was so unexpected that Itsuki looked at her, startled. Her sea-colored eyes were calm, accepting. He saw no disbelief or rejection in their depths. "Yes, we do. We have a Soul-touch."

"So I was right." She stood up and walked a short distance away, her arms crossed beneath her breasts. "When first I met you, it almost seemed as if I recognized you from somewhere, even though I had never met you before in my life. Now you consume my every waking thought. I almost feel as if I cannot be happy unless you are there with me, as irrational as that sounds. I have seen the link between us, so I know it is there. I have also felt the demands of the bond, and know what we must do." She lowered her head, black hair spilling to cover her exquisite face. "But I cannot stay here. Father would never allow it. Since Mother died, I and the horses are all that he has left."

She heard Itsuki get up, and sensed that he was right behind her, reaching out to touch her. "But the bond must be fulfilled, lest we both suffer. I do not care for myself, but the thought of you in pain is unbearable."

"Father would want to know where the child came from." His hands were on her upper arms; she could feel their warmth even through the kimono.

"We are young and foolish. That is excuse enough."

"He will think it a disgrace to the Shibata name." She turned to face him.

"But you will not care." His fingers tightened softly as she leaned closer.

"Reading my mind again." She smiled mischeviously. "What am I thinking now?"

"That the bond must be fulfilled."

Her arms came up around him. "Foolish girl that I am. Shall we avoid pain?"

"Of course."


	5. What Didn't You Tell Me?

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight. Sorry if I get some of the rooms mixed up or mis-named; I don't have their order or placement memorized

**Queen's Quorner: **Sorry this took so long. I was having a small - well, actually a very _large_ - problem with the eternal curse of all writers: Writer's Block. I don't know if the switch between their serious discussion and their sexual innuendo is too abrupt, too...well... not tasteful, but keep one thing in mind. There is a _lot_ of time passing between the two conversations. At least two hours, is what the muse is telling me.

What Didn't You Tell Me?

Lightning flashed outside the window, illuminating the room far better than the on the table lantern ever could. Michiko shut her eyes tightly as another wave of pain washed over her body, folding in upon herself in a futile attempt to escape the burning sensation. She had been suffering these agonizing flashes since yesterday, when she and Itsuki and consummated their bond. Or rather, _not_ consumated. They had acted as man and wife, and given their innocence to each other beside the stream. But the Soul-touch was not consummated. There was no child. She knew there wasn't.

She had been in her room all day, and through the link they shared she knew Itsuki had been in his chambers as well. No doubt he was suffering just as she was, but why? What had kept the bond from total fulfillment?

"Michiko?"

She rolled her head to the doorway and saw Chitose, watching her from the doorway with wide brown eyes. "Yes, Chitose?"

"Are you and Itsuki sick? Neither of you came down for dinner."

"I don't know for sure about your brother, but I know I'm not sick. It's just... I didn't feel like moving." Chitose was a bit too young to explain the matter to. In a few years, she would be told her role as a woman in a relationship and then she might understand, but for the moment Michiko was hardly the person to tell her what was going on between herself and Itsuki.

"I brought you some food. Itsuki already had some." The little girl bent to the floor beside the door and brought forth a tray, carrying it over to her friend as she rolled over and sat up, setting it beside Michiko's pile of blankets and pillows. Michiko looked it over with a curious eye. Cooked fish, a small pot of tea with a matching cup, and a bowl of rice. It wasn't much, but then again Chitose could only carry so much without danger of spilling it, and she wasn't all that hungry anyway.

"Thank you, Chitose. You are most kind." She poured the tea and picked up the chopsticks, handling them with the same manuel dexterity that allowed her calligraphy to take on such beautiful, perfect shapes. Chitose smiled and knelt across from the older girl gracefully, a miniature copy of her mother's formal mannerisms, before taking out a sweet-cake and biting into it.

"Michiko, do you like Itsuki?" she suddenly asked.

Michiko just barely avoided spilling tea all over her kimono, so surprised was she at the question. "Why do you ask?"

"I notice more than what most people think, Michiko. I've seen the way you and he look at each other." The little girl fixed her with a very grown-up stare, and Michiko had to fight to supress the urge to look away. "Do you like him?"

"Of course I do, Chitose. He's a very nice young man, and very close in age to me. I haven't had a friend since my sister...died. It's an honor to be his friend." She sipped her tea, and hoped the daughter of Tachibana was satisfied with her answer.

Chitose didn't press the issue farther. Instead, she took another bite of her sweet-cake and pointed at the pendants encircling Michiko's neck. "Why do you wear two necklaces?"

The older girl reached a hand up to the pendants, her fingers softly rubbing over the polished blue and white stones. "These are the necklaces I and my twin sister Chi-oh were given when we were born. Mine is the blue one, and the white belonged to her." She closed her sea-colored eyes in sorrow, and tightened every muscle in her body as the pain struck again, the slightest flinch the only outward sign of the torture she was suffering within. "After her death, I took her pendant and have worn it alongside mine ever since. Chi-oh is gone, but she is with me always, regardless of the roll of years since last I saw her."

Chitose nodded sagely. "Just like Itsuki and Mutsuki."

Michiko looked up. "What?"

"Itsuki and Mutsuki are one again, or so Mother tells me. Nobody will tell me what happened to him." Now Chitose looked sad, and Michiko's Gift flared suddenly as she spoke, stronger than anything she had recieved from it since her arrival.

"You don't know what happened to your brother?" Michiko gently prodded. There was something important hidden here. "Your mother said there was an accident."

Chitose shook her head. "There wasn't an accident; that much I know. The last time I saw him, there was a lot of talk about some kind of ritual. I don't know what happened, other than that."

"What kind of ritual?" _He didn't tell me everything..._

The Tachibana girl shrugged. "I do not know. Itsuki might tell you, but I would not count on that. He will not tell me anything about the ritual. He will not even tell me why his hair turned white."

Suddenly angry, knowing now why the bond hadn't been consummated, Michiko stood up. "Where is Itsuki?"

"He is in his room. If he is not there, try the Heaven Bridge between our house and the Kiryu house. He sometimes goes up there to think."

"In this storm?"

"Rain does not bother my brother. He and Mutsuki would sometimes sneak out to the bridge and watch the lightning." Chitose shivered. "Lightning scares me."

"Thank you, Chitose. I have to talk to him."_ Now._

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Itsuki stood resolute against the driving rain and wind, watching the flashing skyfire with sorrowful eyes. _Mutsuki always loved lightning..._

His fingers tightened on the wood railing as pain wracked his body once more.

"Itsuki!"

He turned his head, and saw Michiko standing outside the door leading to his house, fury dancing in her aquamarine eyes. Her hair whipped to the side in the strong wind, but she did not bow to its ceaseless command for obedience. He admired her strength in that moment, and suspected he knew why she was out here when she should be inside where it was dry, just like everybody else in the village. Only he and Mutsuki were ever foolish enough to stand exposed to a storm of this power.

He had never dreamed that Michiko would do the same as he and his brother.

"Michiko! Why aren't you inside?" They had to shout to hear each other. The wind would carry normal vocal tones away before they could reach the other's ear. "It is not safe out here!"

"You did not tell me everything about Mutsuki! That is why the Soul-touch is unfulfilled, why we are both suffering this pain!" Her kimono clung to her body now, as soaked as his own. She did not flinch as the rain pounded against the exposed areas of her skin, but regarded him with that burning gaze steadily, demanding his reply. "What didn't you tell me? I told you everything about Chi-oh! You must tell me what happened to your brother, lest we both continue to suffer!"

He shook the hair plastered against his face out of his eyes. "I cannot! It is forbidden to speak of the ritual!"

"Why is it forbidden?" She took a few steps closer to him, did not flinch as lightning cracked across the sky like a horse-whip. "Itsuki, you have to tell me! The bond demands it! You know what the old legends say about resisting a Soul-touch too long!"

_We'll both die... _

Itsuki did not care if he lived or died; either way he would be with his twin once more in truth rather than belief. But he could not stand the thought of Michiko, his soul-mate, dying before her time. Compared to that consequence, the choice between tradition and the bond was a simple one indeed.

But he could not tell her here. Even above the wind and rain, the rolling thunder and cracking bolts of light, someone might hear them. He lurched forward and grabbed her hand, dragging her inside. "Come on. I cannot tell you here."

It was a simple matter to sneak through the house unheard, unseen. At this time of night, most members of the household were in their beds. As long as he and Michiko made no noise, nobody would notice their passing. Itsuki led her to one of the storerooms in the hallway between the familial quarters and the servants', opening the trapdoor soundlessly and gesturing for her to climb down the ladder. Trusting him despite the secrets he kept, Michiko climbed down the wooden ladder, slowly because of the kimono that clung to her legs like ivy-vines. Itsuki followed soon after, closing the trapdoor above his head. He had brought a lantern decorated with images of butterflies with crimson wings, a light-source that one of the servants had lit in the hallway hours ago. It cast a lurid red light upon their surroundings.

"Where are we?" the daughter of Shibata asked, gazing around at the tunnel hewn from solid stone. _Obviously we are underground, but..._

"This is the Earth Bridge. It connects my house to the House of Kiryu, much as the Heaven Bridge we just departed." He set the lantern upon the ground a short distance away from the ladder, halfway between the ladders that led to the surface, and shoved his hair away from his face. His hair, as well as Michiko's, was so wet it would take hours to completely dry. Their kimonos were even worse. "Hardly anybody comes down here. We are secluded here."

"Then speak of this forbidden ritual." Michiko wrung out her long black hair, a stream of water pooling at her feet. "Why is it forbidden? And more importantly, what does it have to do with you and Mutsuki?"

Itsuki sighed and pressed his back flat to the stone behind him, sliding down until he sat on the ground. He reached out a hand, and the girl with whom he shared this bond came to him, sat beside him with his arm around her shoulders. Her prescence gave him the strength to defy a rule he had obeyed his entire life, to speak of that which was forbidden to ever mention, especially to one born outside the village. "It is a long story, Michiko. A story that spans the entire history of this village, and the region surrounding it. The origins of the ritual are lost to time, but the tradition carries on even if the story does not."

She leaned her head against his shoulder and upper chest, turned onto her hip so the position was a bit more comfortable. Her arm crept across his waist to the opposite side, and his hand migrated down her back so it rested on her right hipbone. The position was a little uncomfortable, but both ignored the discomfort in favor of the warmth. Both were shivering from the water soaking their kimonos.

"Mutsuki and I, Sae and Yae, are not the only twins ever born to this village. Twins are born in All God's Village with alarming regularity, always in time to come of age for the next ritual. Twins are our guardian dieties; they protect us from..."

"From what?" Her voice was soft, gentle. Coaxing him to continue when he faltered.

"It is referred to in writings as 'X', but the priests know it as 'the Hellish Abyss.' It is a hole in the ground that we both worship and fear. It must be appeased, or the entire region will suffer horrible consequences. Nobody is allowed to gaze into its depths. Those who do have their eyes sewn shut and are called Mourners. Not even the Ceremony Master can look into it without punishment."

"Where do the twin guardian dieties come into this?"

Pain swept through them again, stronger than before. Itsuki had to pause before he could continue. "Twins born in this village do not live a peaceful life. They are an integral part of the ritual, the only ones who can accomplish it. Without them, the ritual is useless. Any pair of twins can be used, but maidens are preferable. If there is a pair of twin girls in the village, twin boys will be passed over in their favor. Sae and Yae were to have performed this ritual during the last festival, but Mutsuki and I volunteered for it instead, so they would not have to suffer."

"What is the ritual? What happens?"

Itsuki licked his lips, and had to remind himself of the penalty of keeping this a secret from his soul-mate before continuing. "Also referred to as 'X', the ritual's true name is the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual." Michiko flinched beneath his arm, and he gently stroked her hip, comforting her. She had told him about her Gift, her blessing and her curse. "Nobody save the twins, the Ceremony Master, and the priests know what happens in the ritual, but most villagers have a vague idea. The twins must undergo a cleansing for several weeks prior to the festival in which the ritual takes place. They stay in the Tachibana and Kiryu houses, separated from each other. That is what the bridges are for, so the twins may visit each other during this time. When the day of the ritual arrives, the twins are garbed in white kimonos bound together at the waist by a crimson cord and taken to the Hellish Abyss beneath the Kurosawa house. Once there, they must..." He stopped, momentarily overcome.

"Itsuki?" Michiko raised her head, wiped his tears away with a gentle hand. Looking deep into his eyes, she asked him the question, enunciating each word just enough for him to understand how important this was. "What must the twins do?"

"They must..." He choked back a sob, memories overwhelming him. "The order in which the twins are born is very important to the ritual. The older twin, the secondborn, must perform the ritual on the younger twin, the firstborn. He or she must...must kill the younger twin...with his or her own hands. The sacrifice occurs through...strangulation, but if the older twin has problems...it is...acceptable for a priest to...help. Once the twin is...dead, the Mourners throw the body...into the Abyss. While the body falls, from the mark left on the throat rises a...a butterfly... with crimson wings. The soul of the twin, rising into heaven. Afterwards, the twins are rejoined in a single body. That is the ultimate goal of the ritual, for the twins to be rejoined as one, as they were in the womb prior to birth. But it does not change the fact that..." Itsuki was crying in earnest now, his arms wrapped tightly around Michiko as the tears fell, pulling her up against his chest so he could bury his face in her shoulder, in her hair. "I failed Mutsuki. Our ritual didn't work. He didn't turn into a butterfly. He died for nothing!"

"Itsuki...I'm so sorry..." Michiko was stroking his hair, trying to comfort him. He wanted that comfort, craved it as a man dying of thirst craves water, but he couldn't take it. He didn't deserve that soothing touch.

"Now Sae and Yae will have to undergo the ritual, unless I can get them away in time. Nobody should have to suffer like this ever again." His arms convulsed around her. "Mutsuki suffered for nothing!"

"As my sister did."

He raised his head from her shoulder to look at her, and saw that tears were rolling down her cheeks as well. "What?"

"Chi-oh could have done great things with her life, had she lived. She had a brilliant mind to balance out the weakness of her heart, of her body, and a deep kinship with horses that surpassed even Father's. The Shibata Stables would have passed to her, if she hadn't died. She had so many plans for the horses... Plans most adults would never have thought of...

"We both lost our twins needlessly. And both of us..." She held up the white pendant, ran her free hand down the length of his snowy hair. "Carry signs of our loss, of the pain we both suffered."

"But I failed him..."

"Mutsuki is always with you, Itsuki, much as Chi-oh is always with me. Twins can never be parted, no matter what happens to separate them." She held his gaze with her own, made sure he understood her every word. "You did not fail him, Itsuki. It is not wrong to feel sorrow for one you loved. The Crimson Sacrifice Ritual is wrong. Human sacrifice is always wrong. You are both victims of a horrific tradition, a fate no one should have to experience. I do not know what went wrong with your ritual, but it could not have been yours or Mutsuki's fault. You are not to blame." She pressed a soft kiss to his temple, wrapped her arms about him comfortingly. "If anything, it is the fault of the men who perpetuate this atrocity. The village could have been abandoned, the people could have moved away from this terrible place."

"But fear keeps us here. We are afraid of what might happen if there was no one here to perform the ritual." Itsuki's voice was still full of misery, his tears hot against her neck. "We are all afraid of the Repentance. What is prophesized to happen if the ritual ever fails completely, and the Abyss is not appeased."

"But if there are no people here, who would it affect?"

His sobs slowed, and eventually quieted. _She's right. If there was nobody in the village, nobody would be hurt by the Repentance._

"Itsuki, when the day of the festival comes, you have to leave this place with Yae and Sae. If the priests find out that you are the one behind their escape, they will punish you terribly. I can see it in one of the strands of your future."

"Your Gift is telling you this?" His sorrow had melted away, for the moment. He still felt as if he had failed Mutsuki somehow, but his determination to get the Kurosawa twins out of All God's Village before the ritual flared once more. This tradition of pain and murder _had_ to end. _Forever_.

"Yes."

They stayed like that for uncounted spans of time, using the other as a balm to wounds still open, still refusing to heal. Their arms were wrapped about each other, heads resting on the other's damp kimono. Companions in misery, soul-mates bound by their link and their losses. Together, they found peace unattainable when alone.

It seemed like hours before they both realized that the pain they had suffered ever since yesterday had ended.

"Why are we not hurting?" Michiko asked. A rhetorical question, Itsuki sensed.

"There are no more secrets between us. I have told you everything, and have nothing more to keep from you."

Pain flashed briefly, a momentary discomfort. Almost as if someone was reprimanding them.

Michiko laughed softly. "_Everything?_"

Itsuki blushed, hiding his embarrasment against her shoulder. "Well... I suppose there is one more thing..."

"Might I ask what that thing is?"

"I..." He took a deep breath, preparing to reveal the depths of what little heart he had left to him. "I think I love you."

"I think I love you too." She moved her shoulder so his head fell away from it, and he was forced to look at her. "Do you think the bond is satisfied now?"

"Not until we are physically together once more. That is the main purpose of a Soul-touch, after all."

"How much more 'together' could we get?" Another rhetorical question.

Itsuki stroked his hand up her leg, lifting the kimono higher with each caressing motion. "Do I even have to answer that?"

Michiko smiled, her blue eyes glimmering with mischief and...something else. Something both new and familiar to the young couple. "I suppose I already know the answer." She began unwinding the tie holding his kimono shut, helped him shrug out of the upper half.

"Then let us do as we must before I get tired and go to my bed for the night." _I'm sorry, Mutsuki, but I have to do this._

_I know, brother. I understand. _

Startled, he started to pull away when he heard his brother's voice in his head. But Michiko's lips were on his own, her hands were sliding across the exposed areas of his skin with definate purpose. A very..._distracting_ purpose.

Sighing softly, he began the process of removing his soul-mate from the confines of her clinging kimono. There were just some things in life that could not be forced to wait.

Especially not when they felt so right.


	6. Tachibana's Return

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

**Queen's Quorner: **I know this chapter sounds a bit rushed. I have had a bit too much caffeine and not enough sleep. Next chapter will sound better, I promise.

Tachibana's Return

Within the Kurosawa House, a quintet of men sat around a table, their heads bowed in respect to the man at the head. The Ceremony Master, the master of the Kurosawa household, was pacing before them, a thing he almost never did.

"The Abyss is stirring more than ever now," he finally said, returning to his cushion and kneeling as befitted the uncrowned leader of the village. "We require a sacrifice to offer it until the festival next year, when my daughters shall be ready for the Ritual. Hiroshi!"

The man nearest him raised his head.

"You say that the owner of the Shibata Stables has come to offer you horses, correct?"

"Yes, Ceremony Master. He has come as I requested, and brought his daughter with him."

"She's no good." Kurosawa snorted softly. "The only female sacrifices we have ever given to the Abyss have been twins. There is no sign that Shibata's daughter is a twin, and even if she was she is useless without her sister. There has never been a female Kusabi, and I would not use one in the appeasing ritual. Her father will have to do."

"So I am to deliver Mr. Shibata to the temple tomorrow night?" Hiroshi Tachibana wondered, his voice carefully respectful.

"No." Kurosawa tapped his fingers together lightly. "Give him one more night with his beloved daughter. Deal fairly with him for the horses. Do not give him any reason to suspect that something is amiss. Two nights from now, he will be used in the Kusabi Ritual."

"And the girl?"

"She can leave the village. After all, if we manage this correctly, she will only know that her father suffered an unfortunate accident whilst watering his horses near the stream, and his body was so greatly damaged that the one who discovered him buried him immediately." Kurosawa smiled softly, a grin that sent chills down the men's spines. "She need never know the true purpose behind your summoning her father here, Hiroshi."

The Tachibanas were eating dinner with their guests when there was the sound of a door being opened and greetings – too far away to be understood – being given. Keiko carefully replaced her bowl of rice and folded her hands upon her lap demurely.

"It seems that my honored husband, Hiroshi, has returned from his business," she murmured.

"Tachibana has arrived?" Kisho laid his chopsticks down. "Then that means he and I can finally begin bargaining over the horses."

"I am afraid not, Mr. Shibata. You see, when my husband returns from these trips he requires a little time to himself. Perhaps tomorrow, you can…"

The door to the room slid open, and a man in a dark purple tunic with short black hair entered the room. "I was told I would find my family and guests here," he said in a friendly tone.

Michiko's Gift flared so suddenly, so strongly then, that she winced. Itsuki gave her a concerned look from across the table.

"I apologize for taking so long to complete my business, Mr. Shibata. I had hoped to examine your horses when you arrived."

"Mr. Tachibana." Kisho stood up and bowed politely. "It was no trouble. Your honored wife was kind enough to offer us a place in your home until our bargaining is completed."

"My wife is known for her generosity." Hiroshi smiled at her, and then allowed his gaze to travel to the young woman seated at Kisho's side. "I see you have brought your daughter with you. The rumors understated her beauty and elegance, I see. I am honored that my humble home is graced with such a perfect example of young womanhood." He bowed to her, and Michiko blushed, unsure of how to handle this. Itsuki caught her eye, and his calming blue gaze helped to settle her unease. "I hope the horses are as magnificent as your daughter, Mr. Shibata."

"Better, Mr. Tachibana." There was a coldness now in Kisho's words. Chitose edged closer to her brother, her eyes wide upon the visitor.

"I would like to begin bargaining now, but I am afraid I must retire. I have been traveling all day, and require my rest." He bowed once, and then was gone.

Dinner resumed, but there was now a certain tension at the table. As soon as she was finished, Chitose fled to the safety of one of her closets. Michiko followed soon after, hoping to forget Mr. Tachibana's words in her diary.

_Mr. Tachibana has returned, and my Gift has not completely left me alone. There is something about him…_

_I feel as if he means us harm._

_But that makes little sense. Why would Hiroshi Tachibana, a man neither I nor my father has ever met, wish us harm? Does it have something to do with the ritual Itsuki told me about?_

_Itsuki… I know what I said was true. My heart belongs to him now, as his surely does to me. He visits me nightly now, and we are hard-pressed indeed to keep our noise to a minimal level. It is difficult to stay quiet when he is making me feel so very good, after all, but we manage it. The consequences would be terrible if we were to be discovered. We are soul-mates, and the Soul-touch has been consummated at last. _

_I am with child. _

_Itsuki knows. I told him last night, after we had finished. I have never seen such joy in a man's eyes before, but I also know that he is afraid. He fears that this child will become twins, and that if I were to stay here, then they would have to suffer as he and Mutsuki did. _

_But I have no intention of that occurring. Father and I will depart once the bargaining is completed, and I have given Itsuki directions to my home. He and the Kurosawa twins, and probably Chitose as well, will leave All God's Village on the day of the festival and travel to my father's house. I am sure that Father will take them all in. He has never turned away visitors before, especially not if I plead their case. If I have my way, none of them will ever have to return to this awful place._

_All God's Village is a paradox. It is an amazingly beautiful locale, but the lovely exterior conceals a dark secret. A history of pain and human sacrifice, the likes of which I have never heard… My Gift will not leave me alone, most of the time. I stay in the Tachibana house or the woods most of the time, as they are the only places I can find any sort of relief from my sixth sense. I cannot even get close to the Kiryu house, which has become abandoned in the weeks since Father and I arrived. The inhabitants have disappeared, and I believe I know why._

_Whenever I get near the place, a child's voice whispers in my head. A girl, asking "Why do you kill?" or pleading "Don't kill me!" I sometimes see a little girl in a creamy kimono, her dark hair shielding her face from view. This girl is often accompanied by a doll her size that resembles her exactly, moving beneath its own power. I know it is a doll and not a girl by the whirring, clicking sounds it makes when it moves. Where it not for the noise, one would believe it and the girl to be one and the same. Furthermore, I sometimes see an elderly man sitting at a table, carving pieces of wood into dolls, and I know he is dead. The girl and her doll? I do not know. _

_The rarest and most frightening vision I receive from the Kiryu house goes something like this: the man is laying on his back, sleeping peacefully. The door slides open, and suddenly the girl and her doll are there, peering through the opening. The doll pushes the little girl into the room and she stumbles to the man's side, her eyes empty of emotion or life. She seems more a doll in this vision than the doll itself. She straddles the man's chest and just as he wakes up, her hands close about his neck. She strangles him with strength far beyond that of such a young child, and he is unable to get her off of him. After what seems like an eternity, he stops moving and she gets off his chest, staring down at him. Suddenly emotion fills her blank eyes, and tears slip down her cheeks. She then turns to the doll, still standing in the doorway. "Azami!" she cries, her voice so small and lost. "Why did I kill? Why?" She then collapses to her knees, crying hard. _

_The doll says nothing. _

_It is a terrifying vision, and I get the feeling that it is true. This girl, whoever she is, killed the man with her own hands while her moving doll stood watching. _

_There is something horrifically wrong with this village. _

_The sooner all of us leave it to its fate, the better._

"Michiko?"

Itsuki's voice drew Michiko from her dark contemplations, and she looked to the doorway. Itsuki stood there, watching her. "Yes?"

"The servants have already gone to bed, and so has my family and your father." His blue eyes twinkled with mischief and intent. "But I am not sleepy."

She smiled at him, and motioned him inside. "You are getting bolder, my Itsuki. I think I like this new side of you."

He pushed the door closed and went to her, already starting to remove his kimono. "I had something I wanted to discuss with you, that's all."

"And that would be…?"

"I realize that your father might not approve, but I would like to know if you would like to marry me."

"Itsuki…" Michiko went to him, wrapped her arms about his neck and drew his head down so it was kiss-close. "In a way, we already _are_ married."

"But we must be formal about it. Our parents are going to wonder where the baby came from, after all. My parents would understand about the Soul-touch. Your father? I would guess not." He undid the ties holding her kimono shut, and nudged it from her shoulders so it slid to the ground.

"He would listen to me if I told him this is what I want. Father has never been able to refuse me anything." She brushed some hair out of his eyes, leaned her naked upper body against his. "I accept."

"Good. I'll ask my parents' permission to wed you tomorow morning, so they can begin marriage negociations." He dipped his head to hers. "Now, I've had a craving for you all day. Think we can keep this quiet tonight?"

Michiko could only moan in reply.


	7. I'll Come Back I Promise

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

I'll Come Back... I Promise

Itsuki and Michiko stood outside the door to the Tatami Room, listening to their parents speaking within. Kisho was listing the qualities of his horses above those of normal equines, what it was that made them so special. Hiroshi sounded interested, but was pretending indifference so he could get a better bargain. Keiko's sweet voice raised in a question, wanting to know how the Shibata horses could be used for plowing if they were originally trained for riding purposes.

The young couple looked at each other, and Itsuki nodded. _We have to tell them. _

Michiko slid the door open, and she and Itsuki stepped inside, bowing respectfully to the adults within.

"Yes, Itsuki? What do you want?" Hiroshi inquired, not really paying attention to his white-haired son.

"Honorable Mother and Father, Honored Guest Mr. Shibata, I have come to ask your permission to wed your daughter, Michiko Shibata."

There was a silence, and then the room exploded.

"You have chosen a bride, Itsuki? That is wonderful!"

"You chose this..._foreigner_ as your bride? Itsuki, what has come over you?"

"How dare you ask permission for my daughter's hand! I refuse to allow you to continue your pursuit of her!"

Michiko dropped to the ground, head down in a deeply respectful bow. "Beloved Father, please allow me to explain. He already asked for my hand, and I have given it to him."

"Michiko... How could you?" His tone made her wince, but she forced herself to continue.

"We cannot be parted, Father. You see, Itsuki and I have discovered..."

"We have a Soul-touch," the son of Tachibana finished.

Keiko's hand flew to her throat. Hiroshi's eyes widened. Kisho just looked puzzled.

"Soul-touch? What does that mean?"

"It means, Honored Guest, that our son and your daughter are soul-mates. They are meant to be together, and to raise children together. Now that they have found each other, nobody else shall do. They will not accept anyone else as a husband or wife." Keiko stood up, and walked over to the kneeling girl. She got down on one knee, and gently lifted Michiko's head so she could look into her eyes, gifting her with a warm smile. "It would be an honor to accept your daughter into our household, Mr. Shibata, if you allow her to join with our son."

"I..." Kisho went to his daughter, a look of desperation in his dark eyes. "My daughter, is this truly what you want? To stay in this village? Apart from your home?"

Michiko bit back her tears. Her father looked so pitiful that it made her want to cry. "Yes, Father. I wish to be with Itsuki."

He gazed at her a moment longer, and then he turned his back on her, returning to his cushion across from Hiroshi Tachibana. "If that is so, then I grant you my permission. Know that my home is open to you, should you choose to return." It was a mere formality; Michiko could hear the icy coldness in her father's voice.

He had given her his permission, but not his blessing.

"Well, Mr. Shibata. It seems we have marriage negociations to act upon as well." Hiroshi motioned to his wife, who brought him a blank scroll of parchment, laying it carefully out beside the partially-filled one already spread across the table. "Shall we begin?"

"Of course." Kisho did not look at his daughter, or her betrothed. "We must still complete bargaining over the horses as well."

The young couple bowed to their parents, and quickly exited the room, racing to Michiko's room and slamming the door behind them. "I was afraid they would not allow us to wed," Itsuki panted, leaning against the wall beside the door. "Explaining that we have a Soul-touch sealed their decision, it seems."

"Yes, but..." Michiko rubbed her silk-clad arms as if she were cold. "Father is acting as if I have betrayed him or something. I know I am his only remaining family, but I thought he understood that someday he was going to have to let me go. I am of the age when prestigious families will begin to send their servants and their eligible sons to ask for my hand in marriage. The Shibata Stables will be passed to me, and through me to my husband. Father would not have forced me to stay unwed, surely!"

"He loves you. That is all." Itsuki hugged her from behind, laid a kiss upon her neck. "He will warm up to the idea, especially since we shall all escape this village within a few months."

"Yes. He will accept me, and any people I were to bring with me, with open arms. Father has never been able to refuse me anything before. Today was the closest he has ever come to telling me 'no.'" She turned in her soul-mate's arms, laid a soft kiss on his jaw. "A few months, and we shall escape this lovely hell."

"With Yae and Sae, and Chitose as well. I cannot leave her behind."

"But the question is, will she come?"

"Will I come where?"

The couple looked to the closet, where Chitose was crawling out. She had a curious look on her sweet face. Itsuki went to her and ruffled her hair, grinning the whole time.

"What did I tell you about eavesdropping on other peoples' business, sister? Now I shall have to punish you!"

"No! Don't tickle!" Chitose laughed as her brother's long fingers began to search along her neck and sides through her kimono, making her fall to the floor and wriggle madly in an attempt to escape them.

"Michiko! Help me teach her not to listen in on peoples' conversations!" Itsuki called over his shoulder, a mischeivious glimmer in his azure eyes.

Michiko grinned, and went to aid in the attack.

For long minutes, Chitose laughed until tears streamed from her eyes, the hands of her brother and friend searching out her ticklish spots and refusing to leave them alone. At last, they backed off and allowed her to catch her breath, to sit up. She looked at them, smiling.

"I heard you say something about you marrying her, Itsuki. Were you telling the truth?"

He smiled and raised a hand threateningly. Chitose squealed and hid her face in Michiko's lap, scrambling as close to her as possible in an attempt to escape the hand that would tickle. The older girl laughed and brushed her fingers through the short black hair.

"Yes, Chitose. It is true. In a few months, I shall be married to your brother."

"Then I'll finally have a sister!"

"Yes, you will." Itsuki grinned, then pounced on his younger sibling. "But right now, you must be punished anew!"

Her high-pitched laughter ringed through the room as her brother and his betrothed began to tickle her again.

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Moonlight shone down upon them, kissing along naked flesh barely covered by a blanket. Michiko stroked her hands along her love's sides as he lay atop her, resting from his exertions.

"A few months, my Itsuki. A few months."

"And I can finally see the world outside this village." He raised his head, kissed her again. "With you."

"With me. Together."

"With my sister and our baby. A family."

"Far away from this place."

They lay quietly a short while longer, luxuriating in each other's company, and then Itsuki got up, reaching for his kimono. "Sleep well, my Michiko. I shall see you in the morning."

"Until the sun rises, then, my Itsuki." She dressed, then lay back down on her pallet, curling up to sleep. The white-haired boy watched her a moment longer, then left the room.

He decided he needed some privacy to relieve himself, and went downstairs, intending to go outside to the designated area. But then...

He heard voices.

His parents, talking in the Deluxe Tatami Room. He crept closer, wondering what they were talking about that they could not discuss upstairs.

When he heard their converstation, his blood froze in his veins.

"Keiko, it has to be done."

"For the good of the village, I know. But I still believe it to be barbaric that you invited him here for the sole purpose of his undergoing the Cutting Ritual."

"I did not ask Mr. Shibata here to be a Kusabi, Keiko. That was Ryokan's idea. I had hoped that Mutsuki's sacrifice would be enough to calm the X and allow our visitors to leave in one piece. But if the Ceremony Master desires him to act as a Kusabi, then I have to obey. He only has the good of the village at heart, after all."

"What about Michiko? Is she to be left alive, or is she to be sacrificed as well?" Her voice sounded bitter.

"We had planned on allowing her to leave. There has never been a female Kusabi, and as far as I know, Michiko does not have a twin sister. She is useless to us unless there is a twin present. But she can stay in the village. The Soul-touch gives Itsuki a reason to live."

"But will she remain unharmed? Eventually she is going to find out what happened to her father. The context of the festival, the basic knowledge of what is supposed to happen, is known to all villagers. If someone were to tell her of the Inner Ceremony..."

"No one will. Do you understand me, Keiko? She is not to know what happened to her father." Hiroshi's voice was low, threatening. It made Itsuki shiver.

"I...Yes, Hiroshi." His mother sounded odd, muffled. As if someone was choking her.

"Yes, what?"

"She will...never know..."

"Good." There was a gasp, and his mother breathing deeply, harshly. "Now, let us go to bed. I shall complete negociations with Mr. Shibata tommorow, and draw it out so he has no choice but to wait until the next day to leave. But he will not have that chance. He will be taken tommorow night, and used in the Inner Ceremony."

"And what will you tell his daughter?"

"Her father was watering the horses in the stream, and one of them panicked. He was killed before the servants could calm the steed, and so damaged was his body that they buried him on the spot, to spare us the horror of gazing upon his remains. A grave marker of sticks shall be erected, a hole dug and the dirt buried in a mound. Michiko will never know the truth. Come, beloved wife. It is time we went to bed."

Itsuki ducked around the corner as his parents opened the door and walked away to their room, his mother gently palpating the red finger-marks on her white throat. When he was certain they were gone, he slid to the floor, staring at the wall but not seeing it.

A Kusabi. They were planning on using Michiko's father as a Kusabi, and offering him to the Hellish Abyss.

And Michiko would be none-the-wiser.

_I have to get them out of here._

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

Michiko was awakened by hands roughly shaking her. She stared blearily at the one who had yanked her from sleep, and realized it was Itsuki. "Itsuki... What...?"

"There's no time. Get your things. Hurry, we have to get your father."

He sounded urgent, afraid. She obeyed him without question, stuffing her articles of clothing and diary into her bag and slipping on her shoes, tying her kimono securely in place. "What's going on? Why do we have to get Father?"

He came to her, put his hands on her shoulders so she would look him square in the eye. "Father is planning on giving your father to the Ceremony Master for use in a ritual known as the Cutting Ritual. He is going to be used as a Kusabi, a foreign sacrifice to the Hellish Abyss. They are going to _kill _him!"

Michiko froze, her Gift assaulting her senses. _No..._

"Come on. We have to hurry." He led her into the hallway and through the house, as quietly as possible. When they reached the guest room, Michiko awakened her father and urged him to pack his things as quickly as possible. Still half-asleep, Kisho obeyed without question, and soon the pair joined Itsuki out in the hall.

"Follow me. You have to get out of the village."

"What's going on?" Kisho demanded, his voice low.

"Mr. Shibata, if you stay here any longer, your life is in grave danger. I'm doing this so you will live."

"My life will be in danger? What nonsense is this?"

"Father please. Just trust him." She looked into his eyes, making sure he understood her. "I am leaving too."

That seemed to satisfy him. Kisho followed Itsuki without question, and the son of Tachibana led them to the gate separating All God's Village from the forest.

"What of the horses?"

"I shall set them free. Trust me, Mr. Shibata. It is better if you do not ride horses when you flee along these trails. I'll free them along the trails you came in on. That will throw the pursuors off." He gave the older man a light push. "Go. Now!"

Kisho obeyed, leaving Michiko alone with her love. Itsuki pulled her into a bone-crushing embrace, kissing her as hard as he could. "Be careful, my Michiko. The trails are dangerous. If you lose your footing..."

"Don't worry, my Itsuki. Father and I, and our baby, will be all right." She kissed him again, then took a step back, removing her blue pendant from her neck and pressing it into his hand. "Here. This is my sacred promise. I will come back to you. I promise."

With that, she disappeared into the night.

Leaving Itsuki alone, tears falling to splash against the pendant, still warm from the touch of her flesh.

"I'll be waiting, my Michiko. I promise."


	8. Return to the Village

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

Return to the Village

A year...

Two years...

Three.

Time passed slowly for Michiko. She waited for Itsuki and his sister, for the Kurosawa twins, but they never came to the house of her father. She could only conclude that they must not have made it out of the village.

Her Gift and the Soul-touch yielded no answers. The distance from her love was too great for either to work.

So she was left alone, without answers, while her life marched on.

Kisho eventually discovered his daughter's pregnancy, and confronted her about it. His heart turned away from her when she revealed that the baby was Itsuki's, and a result of their special connection. He slapped her, and commanded her to stay out of his sight. He would allow her to keep the child, but he never wanted to lay eyes upon it. It would be Michiko's offspring, but not of his blood. Not his grandchild. Michiko wept, but resolved to do everything she could to protect her baby's life. And if it meant keeping it away from her beloved father, then so be it. She would not lose the child she had conceived with the boy she loved.

Michiko gave birth in the middle of a storm, her agonized cries and the screams of the newborn child conflicting with the thunder and lightening in their bid to carry throughout the mansion. It was a daughter, a beautiful baby girl with no twin sister. Michiko held her to her heart, and named her Nozomi, 'hope.'

Kisho, watching from the shadows of the doorway, turned his head away from his daughter's hope.

Nozomi was the light of her mother's life, and a dark stain upon that of her grandfather. The little girl was a delight to the servants, always playful and eager to please. Even at her young age, she was beloved by the horses and the grooms. Kisho was the only person in the household who took no pleasure in the fatherless girl. His stubborn pride would not allow him to accept her hugs or small gifts of flowers or toys, only standing stiffly and telling his daughter to 'remove this child from his sight' whenever her thin little arms encircled his leg through his kimono. Her father's unwillingness to love his grandaughter hurt Michiko's heart, but she always obeyed.

When Nozomi was three, Kisho suffered a terrible sickness. The disease ate away at his body and his life, and with time he was confined to his bed, his health too fragile for him to continue about his daily business as normal. Michiko was left to care for the horses and the running of Shibata Stables, a task at which she excelled. Many fine deals were made while she oversaw the negociations, and several stallions and mares whose names would later become legendary were sired under her careful breeding selections. But always there remained a part of her that longed for her love, a part that desired to take Nozomi to All God's Village and show her to her father, to undergo the marriage Fate had denied her.

Many young men came to the mansion, hoping to wed its beautiful daughter and gain the business empire, but they were always turned away. Michiko had no interest in marrying simply to satisfy the needs of the Stables. There was only one person she longed for, but she was unable to simply walk away and return to his side. The Stables, her ailing father, needed her.

Kisho became worse and worse, often calling out for his beloved, long-dead wife Michi in the midst of his delirium. He sometimes asked for his twin daughters, Chi-oh and Michiko. He failed to recognize his fully-grown daughter when she came to him, sometimes mistaking her for her own mother if he didn't see her as a stranger, one of the servants. Michiko did not complain to him. It was useless to try. She merely nodded and did whatever he told her, as an obedient daughter or servant would, and cried in her room when she was alone.

He had closed his heart to her when he discovered she was carrying Itsuki's child, but his not remembering her at all was far worse than even that had been.

At last, one day Kisho's mind stabilized enough for him to call for his daughter and remember who she was when she answered. He bade her sit next to him while he approached Heaven's Gateway, sharing vigil with him as he waited to die and he unburdened his heart.

"I have been a fool, my daughter," he confessed in a raspy whisper. "I have denied myself the pleasure of spending time with my own grandaughter, and turned away from you. You needed me to be there for you, and instead I decided that you were not my child. You simply gave into the demands of the connection, and it was to be expected. I recall the legend of the Soul-touch, but I had thought you would be above such base desires. Forgive me, my daughter. I was too stubborn to see the truth."

"Father... I forgave you years ago. You never lost my love or my respect," Michiko told him, holding his cold, cold hand in her warm one and stroking his limp, grey hair away from his brow. He had aged so much in the past few months. "Nozomi loves you, as well. There is still time for you to love her."

"No, daughter. There is not." Kisho looked at her, his eyes already fading. "Return to the village, daughter. Find your Itsuki. You were meant to be with him. I just would not let you. The Stables are yours, and through you, Nozomi's. They are my gift to her, the greatest gift I could bequeath unto her in lieu of my love."

And with that, Kisho Shibata passed away, leaving his daughter behind to rejoin his wife and firstborn in the Heaven he was promised.

Michiko arranged his funeral as he had desired, and set about stabilizing the business so her daughter could inherit something worthy, an inheritance of her love and that of her grandfather. Never had the Shibata Stables flourished so well, never were their horses in such high demand as now.

A year passed, and at last Michiko was satisfied with her labours.

It was time to return to All God's Village. Time to keep her promise to the man she loved.

Time to introduce Itsuki to his daughter.

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

"Lady, are you sure you wish to continue on alone? These woods..."

"I am certain, Yukio. Stay here with the horses and Zinan, if you will. Nozomi and I will return for you later. Come, Nozomi. It is not too much farther." Michiko took her daughter's little hand and set off towards the mountain trail she and her father had used four years ago to escape from All God's Village, leaving the servants and horses in favor of continuing on-foot. The elder of the two servants bowed respectfully to them, his son copying his movement.

"As you wish, Lady Michiko. We shall await your return."

She nodded, and stepped onto the appropriate trail. Nozomi followed her mother, occasionally pointing to something and asking what it was. She had never been outside the mansion before, so she was extremely curious about everything she saw. Michiko did not care to stop and satisfy her daughter's curiosity; the Soul-touch was returning to life, tugging at her insistently as she neared the village. She instead gave an appropriate reply and continued onwards, eager to be reunited with Itsuki.

Around noon, she had to stop and take a rest. Nozomi played while her mother caught her breath, throwing rocks into the stream and exploring the area beneath Michiko's watchful eye.

"Mommy, where are we going again?" she asked, picking up a particularly large stone and rolling it into the creek. It made quite a big splash, and she turned back to her mother, childish pleasure shining in her blue eyes. She had her father's eye color, a darker shade than Michiko's. Her mother smiled, and pulled her daughter to her, brushing her long black hair away from her face with gentle fingers.

"We are going to a place called All God's Village, Nozomi." The little girl picked a flower and played with the petals while her mother held her, her small fingers gentle on the beautiful, dead thing. "Your father, Itsuki Tachibana, lives there. I want to see him again, and I think you should meet him. He will like you, I am certain."

"And then what?" she asked, not looking up from the flower.

"I do not know. But I do know that we will be a family, together at last." She hugged her daughter, and let her slide off her lap, standing up to brush off her kimono. It was the same pale blue one she had met Itsuki in, four long years ago. "Come, Nozomi. Let us go. It is not too much farther to the village."

"Will you carry me, Mommy?" Nozomi asked, reaching her arms up beseechingly.

Michiko smiled and picked her up, settling her on her hip as the little girl put her arms around her neck. Nozomi was really too heavy for this, but she didn't mind. She wanted her to be in a good mood when she met Itsuki. They continued on their way, up the trail, not noticing how dark it was getting.

"Mommy, what's that?"

Michiko looked where her daughter was pointing, and saw a butterfly with crimson wings drifting across the trail. She stopped, watching it, and it seemed to stay in place for a moment before flying towards her and then away, staying in her immediate sight.

_Almost as if it wants us to follow it..._

Without realizing what she was doing, she began to follow the butterfly. She could not stop looking at it, couldn't let it out of her sight. Even the ever-inquisitive Nozomi fell quiet as she followed the insect with the blood-red wings.

She snapped out of her trance just before she entered a gate of red wood.

The entrance to All God's Village.

Something held her back, telling her not to enter. Warning her away.

The butterfly dipped back and forth, beckoning to her.

The Soul-touch pulled at her, the source so close it almost felt like he was right in front of her. Demanding she follow the connection and come to him.

"Mommy?"

_Itsuki..._

She took a step forward, passing through the gate...

And fell to her knees, Nozomi toppling to the ground, as her Gift struck her so suddenly, so strongly, that it hurt her head.

Her fingers dug into her hair as she witnessed horror beyond all imagining.

_Sae... Bloodstained kimono... Laughing... Killing..._

_Bodies everywhere..._

_A man shrouded in ropes... Slicing everyone to shreds..._

_Blood flying... soaking in the ground..._

_Darkness overflowing..._

_Dark... So dark..._

_A pit... Sae laughing..._

_People suffering... Screaming... Dying..._

_Everyone is dead... Dead..._

_Dead._

"Mommy?"

Nozomi was tugging at her hand, fear ruling her dark blue eyes. "Mommy, what's wrong? You're scaring me!"

Michiko gasped as her sixth sense let her free of the nightmarish visions, reaching out and hugging her daughter to her, terrified. "What happened to this place?" she whispered helplessly. "What nightmare was set loose?"

She shuddered in Nozomi's arms for what seemed like an eternity, then gathered her strength and courage and stood up, brushing off her kimono. She looked out over the village. Everything was so dark, but for a few lanterns and fires burning here and there. Her brow furrowed in confusion. _But it was just past noon when we stopped at the stream..._

"Michiko?"

"Itsuki?" She looked around, trying to find the source of the voice she knew so well.

There was no one. They were alone.

"But I just heard him..."

"Mommy, I don't like this place." Nozomi stared at the village with wide eyes, clinging to her mother fearfully. "Why is it so dark?"

"I... I don't know, Nozomi. It wasn't like this when your grandfather and I were here." She took her daughter's hand and approached one of the fires, picking up a burning stick to use as a torch. "Come. Let us see if we can't find your father."

_If he's even still alive..._

_But the Soul-touch wouldn't react if he wasn't! _

_Would it?_

She put the thought out of her mind and mounted the trail that led down into the village proper, Nozomi at her side. She had to believe he was still alive.

She knew he was somewhere here.

She could feel it.


	9. Encounter with Madness

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

**Queen's Quornor: **This chapter may not be up to my usual expectations. I was writing it while bored in my Revolutionary Europe class. Oh, and I have to apologize if I used the wrong term of respect for Keiko. I have studied many languages, but Japanese is not one of them. Wouldja mind telling me if it's the wrong one? And maybe what you think of the fic as well? It would be much appreciated!

Encounter with Madness

The darkness was all-encompassing, swallowing everything that existed within its embrace. The sole exceptions were the tiny fires and crimson-gilt lanterns, struggling valiently to hold back the encroaching blackness. They, and a torch upheld by a single raised hand, were the only defense in the village to stand against the terrors of the unending night.

Michiko had originally thought to go to the Tachibana house and see if Itsuki yet resided therein. But the doors were locked, and no matter how hard she knocked or how loud she shouted, nobody came to admit her entrance to the darkened house.

"Itsuki? Chitose? Keiko-san? Yae? Sae?" Her pleas went unanswered.

It was as if...

Had the vision been true? Had Sae and the roped man killed everyone in the village? What nightmares had been unleashed in this beautiful hell?

Nozomi clung to her mother, staring wide-eyed at her shrouded surroundings. Michiko knew that her daughter had inherited her Gift, the sixth sense; she probably beheld the same horrors her mother had witnessed.

"Mommy?" The little girl hid her face in her mother's shoulder, tightening her arms about her neck. "Who are these people?"

"They are the villagers, Nozomi." She stepped back from the door, raising her torch for a better look.

"They're dead."

"What makes you say that?" It looked like she would need a key to get inside. And that key was most likely inside the house. She inwardly cursed the Fates for seeing fit to lock the door before whatever-it-was happened.

"Her."

The terrified tone of her daughter's voice, the word she had uttered, caught Michiko's attention. Knowing there was most likely something horrific behind her, the woman turned around.

It was a vision from the nightmare. Sae, still cackling, had a man and a woman at her mercy. The couple backed away from her, utterly terrified, as she closed the distance between herself and them. The young man had a long pole in his hands, and he swung it at Sae, trying to drive her back so they could run.

The pole passed straight through the blood-splashed girl, eliciting a horrified scream from the woman cowering behind him. Sae merely laughed, and reached out to touch the man.

His frightened cry choked off the moment her scarlet hands brushed his flesh. A shudder coursed through his body, and he fell to the ground.

Dead.

The woman died in much the same manner, Sae's hands stealing the life-force from her as she turned to flee. Michiko was paralyzed by fear, unable to move as realization crashed through her denial.

Everyone was dead.

All that remained were their ghosts, reliving the night over and over again, with no end in sight.

And that meant...

_Itsuki!_

Sae was still standing there, laughing over the fading bodies. From that laugh alone, even without having witnessed that macabre spectacle, Michiko knew she did not want the ghostly girl to notice them. She stood absolutely motionless, her arm tight around her daughter, silently begging her to remain silent. Her eyes closed in silent prayer.

_Please... Nozomi, be quiet... Please..._

Nozomi whimpered.

The laughter abruptly stopped.

Michiko's eyes snapped open to see dark eyes, glittering with the brightness of insanity, settled squarely on her and her daughter.

"Michiko..." came Sae's singsong voice, sending a chill throughout her body. "You came back."

"Yes. I have come back." The spirit could think in the present as well as the past? "I have a promise to fulfill to Itsuki."

"Have you seen my sister?" The child-like lilt of her voice startled the woman.

"No, I have not seen Yae. Where's Itsuki? What happened here?"

Sae began to move closer, her movements slow and deliberate. Her giddiness seemed to fade, replaced by deep sorrow. "Itsuki helped... We ran. I slipped... Yae kept going. Broke our promise... Always be together." Her eyes glazed slightly, recalling her final hours. "Saw Itsuki... Tsuchihara storehouse... Crimson Sacrifice Ritual... Father took Yae's place...

"Repentance."

Her head snapped up, and the clarity Michiko had glimpsed was completely gone. Madness reigned anew. "Michiko..." The song of her name, three flute-like syllables, was the warning screaming in her head.

"Get away!" She stepped back from the reaching ghost. "I'm only here for Itsuki!"

Sae laughed, her merriment grating along her senses. "Dead! Death is beautiful! You shall be beautiful as well, Michiko!"

"No!" Michiko turned and ran, Nozomi screaming in her ear. She heard the laughter again, and knew Sae was chasing them.

_Please, somebody, anybody, help us! Save us from her!_

_Go to the Kiryu house. The entrance facing my house is open. You will be safe there._

The voice, so familiar and yet so different from the one she longed to hear, startled her. She nearly stopped short to look for the source, but another peal of mirth kept her legs in motion. Sae was right behind them.

Circling around the Osaka house, Michiko took off once more, racing for the abandoned Kiryu house.

_Not the front entrance. Servant entrance._

She scrambled to get around the corner and flew down the stairs, supporting Nozomi with both hands now, having dropped the torch when she had started running. Down the stairs, then up another set, to the Kiryu servants' entrance. Her hand on the knob, she looked back at Sae.

The bloody girl was mounting the stairs, her grin wide across her face. "Michiko..." she sang. "I'm going to get you!"

"No! I will not let you!" She wrenched the door open and swung inside, slamming it shut just as Sae's foot touched the top stair.

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

The Kiryu house reeked of darkness, of despair. But the area in which the two living, breathing humans huddled was relatively free of the stench, free of ghosts. For this, Michiko was grateful. She could not handle another specter of someone she had known, not right now. Shuddering sobs racked her body, her version of the frightened whimpers her daughter was emitting from time to time. They both had suffered the vision of the girl and her doll strangling the old man, but since then they had been left in peace.

_So that is what happened? Assuming Sae told the truth?_

As far as she could deduce, from the visions and the words of the insane ghost, Itsuki had tried to help Yae and Sae escape, probably on the day of the festival itself. But something had gone wrong and the girls were separated. Sae must have gotten captured and taken back to the village, and then used in the ritual by herself. Her own father probably took Yae's place, strangling his firstborn daughter and throwing her into the Hellish Abyss in hopes of appeasing it.

And then...

What? Was this undending night, Sae and the roped man's reign of bloodshed, terror, and madness... Was this the Repentance Itsuki had told her about?

That explained why Itsuki and the others had never come to the mansion. Everyone had been killed.

_But if he is dead, then why is the Soul-touch reacting as if he were not? _

_Could he have survived? Did he get out of the village in time?_

_Sae mentioned something about the Tsuchihara storehouse. Perhaps I can find a clue to his whereabouts there._

_But if we go out there..._

"Mommy?" Nozomi tugged at her mother's hair, the sharp pain drawing her attention away from such black thoughts. "Let's go home. I don't like this place."

Michiko enfolded her daughter in her arms, rested her chin atop her head. "I do not like it either, Nozomi. But we have to find your father. You want to meet your father, don't you? And I have to fulfill the promise I made him when I departed the village.

"Even if it means paying our last respects." _I have to know the truth._

The little girl snuggled tight against her chest, snaking her arms around her and clinging tightly. The grip was almost too tight, but Michiko did not mind. She needed this comfort as much as her daughter. "I don't like that lady. She scares me."

Michiko could not stop her smile. No matter how bleak the situation, Nozomi yet served as her light in the darkness. Her hope. "I know, Nozomi. She scares me too."_ And with good reason._

MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI

They waited for long hours, shuddering in the darkness, until Michiko felt certain that Sae had left. Afraid that she was wrong, fully aware that the slightest mistake on her part could cost them both their lives, Michiko opened the door.

Nothing.

Sae was gone.

_Itsuki..._

_I'm coming. _


	10. Family

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

**Queen's Quornor: **It's the never-ending chapter! Seriously, this one just would not let me end it and move on to the next chapter. It's a sad one, and there's a lot of stuff I wanted to put in here that just didn't seem to fit. So that will show up in the next one. Hope you all enjoy this chapter; I had to really wrack my brain figuring out how to put it all together and how to get a certain person in here. It all fit so well in my head... Why is it that it's always so difficult to get your best stuff down on paper?

Family

_Tsuchihara storehouse... Which house was Tsuchihara again?_

Michiko and Nozomi moved carefully through the village, trying their hardest to avoid attracting the attention of the spirits that haunted the darkness. They had to move slowly due to their lack of a torch, no way to view their surroundings with certainty. Nozomi held tight to her mother's hand, still frightened but attempting to put up a brave front for her mother's peace of mind.

Ghosts were everywhere, all around them. The pair managed to avoid the duos and trios calling out Yae's name, and several times they viewed more horrific deaths from that long-ago advent, replaying endlessly in the darkness of their afterlife. Once, Michiko was surprised to find the ghosts of two young children playing with a ball in the middle of the street. That vision, more than any other, seemed far more surreal due to its sheer normalacy than the moaning wails that had chased them down the street at one point. It scared Michiko, because here was proof that some of the villagers had never even noticed their own deaths.

What did that mean for Itsuki? Or Chitose?

The Soul-touch grew in strength as she advanced through the village. Michiko had decided to simply allow it to lead her as it would, to utilize the connection as a kind of lodestone, and follow it to Itsuki. She paused in the middle of the fork near the village's entrance, trying to gauge from which direction the pull was the strongest.

"Mommy, look." Nozomi pointed at something in the left fork. When her mother followed her daughter's outstretched fingers, she saw that it was one of the statues of the village's twin guardian dieties. "Butterflies."

"Yes, I see them." More blood-winged insects, fluttering lazily about the carved image. She was really starting to dislike the things. After all, it was a crimson butterfly which had led her to this cursed village, through that gate she was unable to locate once more. What did they want now?

"They're souls, aren't they?"

Itsuki had told her of the significance of the crimson butterflies. "Yes, they are. The souls of the sacrificed twins."

Nozomi looked up at her, dark blue eyes wide. "Sacrificed?"

_Through here._

The voice again, the same one that had saved them from Sae. She turned in the direction it had come from, and noticed a pathway of stones leading to a door. The Soul-touch grew stronger and stronger as she neared it.

_Not there. Here._

A double-door was apparent beneath the awning. But when Michiko tried it, she discovered that it was locked.

The pull was so strong, this _had_ to be the storehouse. And Itsuki was within.

Frustrated, she banged her hand against the door. "I am so close... Do not make me go back out there to search for the key!"

_You do not have to. _

Something hit the ground beside her. Nozomi bent down and picked it up. "Look, Mommy. A key."

Michiko took it from her, turned it over in her hand. There was an octogon engraved on the upper half of the key. An octogon that matched the one displayed on the lock. _Who are you?_ she queried.

_Someone who cares about Itsuki too. _

_Are you..._

_You already know the answer to that question. I can take care of her, if you wish. _

_If it comes to that, I shall call for you._

_I shall be waiting. I miss him, too. _

"Thank you." The words slipped from her lips as she carefully inserted the key into the lock. It fit perfectly, and she turned it. There was a _click! _of tumblers sliding against each other, and the door opened easily when she pushed it.

Taking a deep breath, Michiko entered the shadowed darkness of the storehouse, looking around as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light.

It was empty.

_No..._

She fell to her knees, tears obscuring her vision. This was the final blow. She had hold onto this hope, this dream of seeing her Itsuki again, throughout this nightmare of deadly specters and laughing, blood-smeared madness. It was all that had kept her alive when her father had turned away from her, when even her daughter's sunny prescence was not enough to stave off the despair of her loneliness.

And now, to have her hope shattered like a mirror by a hammer...

It was too much to bear.

Sobs wracked her slender body, bending her forward until her breasts were pressed nearly to her folded knees, her back curved in her grief. Her hands flew to cover her face, her tears slipping between the curved digits to splash against the dirtied silk of her kimono.

"Mommy? Mommy!" Nozomi stroked her mother's hair, pawed at her silk-clad back. "Mommy, there's a man here! Can't you see him? He's over by the window!"

_But I do not see him!_

_Soul-touch... So strong..._

_He is close._

_But where?_

_Itsuki? Answer me!_

"Michiko? Is that you?"

It was _his _voice. Even after so many years apart from him, she would still know that voice anywhere.

She lifted her head.

It was him. The same handsome face, the same silky white hair. The same blue eyes he had passed on to his daughter. He stood by the window, as solid and real as she remembered. His face bore an expression of mingled astonishment and joy.

"Itsuki!" She stumbled to her feet, wrenched open the door to his cell, and crossed the room in seconds to embrace him. But he stepped away from her, shaking his head.

"Do not touch me, Michiko. You know why."

Her heart sank. It was true, then. "You are a ghost. For me to touch you could mean my death."

"Yes." He crossed his arms, wrapped his hands around himself, as if to stop himself from reaching out to her in turn. "The only reason I can recognize you is due to the Soul-touch. Without that, I would not have known who you were."

She stared at him. "What?"

"My mind is entrenched in that night, Michiko. All I truly recall are those final hours. I can think, I can interact, I can feel emotions, but nothing else."

Michiko crossed to the wall, and sat on a bench beside where he stood. "What happened to you, Itsuki? Why did you, Chitose, and the Kurosawa twins not come to the mansion? I waited for you..."

He blew a sigh and looked out the window, his eyes becoming distant. "I kept my promise to Mutsuki. When the day of the ritual, the festival, arrived, I helped Yae and Sae escape the village. Then I allowed the villagers to capture me, and lock me in this storehouse to distract them and give the Kurosawas a chance to get away. I was so certain they would escape, I decided to join Mutsuki in death.

"I undid the sash holding my inner kimono in place, and went to the second floor of this storehouse. I hung myself, Michiko. I took my own life, and my last thoughts among the living were of you and our unborn child. About how much I wanted to see you, one last time.

"The next thing I remember is waking up in this place, lying on the floor. My body was gone, so I assume it was entombed with the other Remaining twins. But when I looked out the window..." He shuddered. "You already know what I saw."

"The unceasing horror. The darkness consuming them all, and Sae and the rope man killing the rest." She shuddered lightly, and heard Nozomi shuffle a bit at the entrance to the cell.

"The roped man was the last Kusabi, a folklorist my friend Ryozan Munakata brought with him when he came to see me. They were going to help me get the twins out of here, but the priests captured Mr. Makabe and used him in the Hidden Ceremony. He was given to the Hellish Abyss, and came back with Sae to carry out the Repentance." He sighed. "So many sins, so much tragedy, all because of me. Maybe I deserve this, to never rest, to never see Mutsuki again." He finally looked at her, sorrow and self-pity filling his gaze. "To never be with you again."

"Itsuki, none of this was your fault." Michiko started to reach a hand out to him, but he flinched away. Her hand dropped back to her lap. "None of this would have happened if that ritual was not performed. If nobody had decided to stay here, to offer their own sons and daughters to that pit, none of this would have occured." She beckoned to Nozomi, who crept over to cling to her mother, unnoticed by the spirit of her father. "You, Mutsuki, Yae, and Sae all had the courage to say 'this is wrong.' You are not, and never were, to blame for this nightmare."

Itsuki shrugged, and squinted at his daughter. "Michiko... Who is that at your side? I can barely see..."

"After what you have told me, I am surprised that you can see her at all." She lifted the little girl onto her lap, brushed some hair away from her face. "This is Nozomi, Itsuki. Our daughter, concieved in love and by the grace of the bond we share." She lifted her gaze, and saw the fear in his face. "Fear not. She did not have a twin sister."

"A single girl..." He started to reach a hand out, the desire to touch this child of his almost unbearable, but quickly snatched it back and cradled it against his body. Michiko understood; he did not wish to take away from his daughter's life-force. "Why did you bring her here?"

"I did not know any of this had happened. How could I? All God's Village does not share correspondance with the outside world. But I would still have come, Itsuki. I made a promise to you, and I never go back on my word." She considered her daughter with thoughtful blue eyes. "Although, I would not have brought Nozomi. I would have come alone."

"You're my daddy?" Nozomi looked at Itsuki, then smiled brightly. "Hello daddy!"

A smile blossomed, and spread across his morose countenance. "Hello, Nozomi. So you can see me too, eh?"

"Yes. And the Bad Lady, too."

He raised his brow. "She inherited your Gift?"

"Yes." Michiko hugged her daughter. "Ever is the Sixth Sense both a blessing and a curse."

He went to sit beside his lover, and she fought not to flinch away from his closeness. This was the man she loved, but he was now a ghost. He was so _cold_...

"She has my eyes and your hair. Your face." He smiled at the woman, pride in his eyes. "She is perfect, Michiko. Absolutely perfect."

"All of the servants back home adore her. The horses and my business associates love her." Her gaze lowered, and saddened. "The only person whose heart she did not win was that of her own grandfather."

"Your father did not take pleasure in the blessing of his granddaughter?" Itsuki inquired, surprised.

Michiko nodded. "Father was disappointed that I gave in to the Soul-touch, despite his knowledge of the bond. Furthermore, he was enraged that you had fathered Nozomi. For three years, until the very hour of his death, he refused to acknowledge her as my daughter, his granddaughter, and the rightful heir to the Shibata Stables after myself." She hugged the little girl, rested her cheek atop her head. "But minutes prior to his passing, Father acknowledge her. Nozomi is a full member of the House of Shibata, and next in line as Head of the family." At Itsuki's sideways, incredulous look, she elaborated. "You see, my family is an odd one. One our our ancient beliefs is that it does not matter if the Head is male or female; they are Shibata and so if you marry into the family you become Shibata as well. Once she comes of age, Nozomi will have her pick of the flock for certain. Shibata has enough power and wealth that any young man would be willing to give up his name to gain access to them. She can choose whoever she desires when she decides she is ready to wed."

Nozomi wrinkled her nose. "Boys are icky."

Her parents looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"Gods help us, she sounds just like me!"

"I used to say the same thing, when I was little." Itsuki leaned his head back against the wall, still laughing quietly. "Mutsuki used to tell me that I would change my mind, but I never believed him." He rolled his head to face Michiko, a fond grin pulling at his lips. "Now look at me."

"Now look at _us._" She mirrored his expression, still holding their daughter in her lap. "A family. Together."

"Yes, but..." His happiness faded, and he became sorrowful once more. "You are both yet flesh and blood. Still alive. I am just a ghost, trapped in the limbo between death and the afterlife."

"I am not leaving you, Itsuki." She knew what he had been about to say. "Do not bother to ask; my mind is made up."

"And who are we supposed to raise her? All God's Village is not a location I would wish my daughter to grow up within."

"Nor would I. And so, she will be returned to the mansion whilst I remain here."

Itsuki raised a brow and crossed his arms. "You are planning on sending her out into the village, into the forest, by herself? Sae would catch her before she ever made it past the Osaka house!"

A soft whimper escaped Nozomi at that comment.

"She will not be going alone." Michiko had done some thinking, and figured out the puzzle. She raised her head to look at the opposite wall. "Is that not correct, Mutsuki?"

"What?" Itsuki goggled at her. "Michiko, that is impossible. Mutsuki is..."

"For once, you are sadly mistaken, brother."

A pale mist collected and swirled against the far wall, gathering into the form of a male ghost. He was identical to Itsuki down to the very last detail, but his hair was shining black rather than snowy white. There was a small, sad smile on his face. "Not that I am upset by this, you see."

"Mutsuki?" The younger twin was stunned. "How is this possible?"

"You are not the one who failed the ritual, brother. I loved you too much to hate you for what was demanded of us, to resent the strength you possessed and which Fate had denied me." He crossed to his brother, staring into his eyes. "I have remained in this village by choice. Chitose, and now Nozomi, need me to protect them."

"Why did you not talk to me, if you were here the whole time?" Itsuki threw his arms around his twin, hugging him tightly and burying his face against his shoulder. "I missed you so much..."

The older twin returned his embrace with equal fervor, closing his eyes and resting his head atop his brother's. "As did I, brother. As did I."

"Mommy, who is that man?" Nozomi whispered loudly into her mother's ear.

Michiko smiled and shifted, settling her more comfortably on her lap. "That is your Uncle Mutsuki. You can trust him." Her eyes darkened, but she gathered her resolve. She had decided her course of action when first she had laid eyes on Sae. "He will take care of you until you reach the horses."

"Mommy?" Her daughter twisted to look at her. "What're you talking about?"

The woman reached up and pulled her milky pendant, the remnant of her own long-dead twin, over her head. She slipped it over her daughter's, pulling the silky hair out from beneath it so the leather thong would lay flat against her neck. "This pendant belonged to your Aunt Chi-oh, my twin sister. Whenever you wear it, whenever you put it on, remember me." She kissed her cheek and helped her off her lap, standing up to brush off her kimono. "The stables belong to you, now, as does the position of Head of the House of Shibata."

"Mommy?" Michiko's heart ached when she observed how frightened her daughter was. "Mommy, what do you mean? The stables belong to you!"

"Do not forget us, your father and I." She hugged her one more time as Mutsuki stepped back from his twin, holding out his hand. A soft kiss was placed against the little girl's brow, and she released her into the specter's care. "I love you, Nozomi. Never forget that."

Itsuki seemed to realize what Michiko was doing, and came to stand beside her. "You possess your father's love as well, daughter. You had it even before I knew you were a girl." He looked at Mutsuki. "Will I see you again?" His calm words were at odds with the powerful emotions swimming in his eyes.

"Someday, yes. But not until the Final Sacrifice is completed."

"Final Sacrifice..."

Mutsuki's eyes became distant, as if he was listening to someone far away. "Twin girls, born outside this village. Shrine Maidens by chance, unaware of their destiny. Sae and Yae born anew, recreated to end the Repentance, and release this village from its eternal torment." He shook his head, as if to clear it of a haze obscuring his senses. "I do not know when they shall arrive, but they will. It will be many years... But you shall have each other for comfort." He looked at Michiko. "My touch will not harm her, and my prescence conceals her from other ghosts. She will be safe until we reach the horses, I promise."

"How will you carry her, brother? You did not possess that strength before," Itsuki pointed out.

His twin smiled sadly. "Death bequeaths many benefits, brother. The weaknesses I possessed in life, no longer plague my spirit in death. I can carry far greater weights than ever before; Nozomi should pose no problem whatsoever."

"Thank you, Mutsuki. There are two men waiting with the horses. They will take care of Nozomi once you give her to them, and they will take her back to the mansion." To Nozomi, who was realizing what her beloved mother was saying, she reiterated "Farewell, my daughter. Remember, I will always love you.

"We will meet again, and be a family. I promise."

"Mommy! Mommy!" Her cries pierced the woman's heart, but she did not obey her instincts to comfort her frightened child.

Her place was here, beside her love.

Nozomi's cries faded as Mutsuki picked her up, putting her arms about his neck to hold her steady. His very touch seemed to lull her into exhausted slumber, and she rested her tear-streaked face against his shoulder, fast asleep. Mutsuki smiled softly, then offered his brother and spiritual sister-in-law a slight bow before disappearing out the door and into the night.

"He's gone..." Itsuki looked about ready to cry. Michiko longed to go to him, to hold him close and tell him that everything would be all right. But she could not.

Not for long, that is.

"You will see him again. As I will one day rejoin Chi-oh. But for now..." She approached the cell door, closed the portal that led to the waking nightmare outside. "We have each other."

"But not as we once did." He sat back down on the bench, head cradled in his hands. "I am dead. You are not."

"That is easily remedied."

Her voice came from up above. Itsuki raised his head to look for her...

And had he been alive, he would have had a heart-attack.

Michiko was crouching above the trapdoor in the cieling, her outer kimono hanging open and the sash held ready in her hands.

"Michiko," he asked, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. "What are you doing?"

"Nozomi is taken care of, and she will be well-provided for." She wound the fabric around the rafter twice, then unbound the sash holding her inner kimono and tied it onto the dangling length. Carefully, she worked it into a loop and tied it in place. She raised her head to meet his terrified gaze. "I promised myself I would never leave you again, my Itsuki. And I mean to keep that promise."

"But you do not have to resort to _this_!" His voice was frantic. "You are with me; you do not have to kill yourself!"

"Itsuki, I was doomed the moment I set foot in this village once more. Either Sae or one of the other ghosts will kill me, or I will starve to death." The loop finished, she slipped it over her head and around her neck. "This is the only way I can guarantee that I shall be with you. The only way I can die painlessly."

"Michiko...!" He was standing now, frozen by helplessness. What could a ghost do to prevent a living woman from taking her own life?

"Hush, my Itsuki. The decision is made." She glanced up at the roof. "Forgive me, Honored Mother, Honored Father, beloved sister Chi-oh.Forgive me for making you wait a little longer." Her eyes, oceans of blue serenity, met Itsuki's frightened ones. "I shall see you soon, my Itsuki. Then we can be together...

"Forever."

Her name rang from his lips as she fell forward and jerked to a sudden stop, the sharp _crack!_ of bones breaking the last thing Michiko Shibata ever heard.


	11. Eternity

**Summary:** What might have happened if there had been a pair of visitors to the village before Makabe and Munataka? What if one of those two had been a woman? What if she and Itsuki discovered they had a special connection?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Fatal Frame games, I do not own Tecmo, I am not getting paid in any way for this, etc, etc. I usually only write Devil May Cry fics, but Crimson Butterfly got me thinking. If it sucks, deepest apologies. Flamers will have gasoline poured on them and be danced around sometime around midnight.

**Queen's Quornor: **So here we are. The final chapter of "Kindred Souls." Sorry it has been so long in coming, I have been a bit busy with my Final Fantasy 7 fics. This is supposed to be tragic, but I'm not so sure it comes off that way. So, enjoy it, and leave me a review, please!

Eternity

"Michiko? Michiko!"

The voice reached into the darkness, dragged her consciousness into the light. Michiko groaned softly, feeling a terrible burning pain in her neck, and opened her eyes. Itsuki was kneeling beside her on the floor, his brow creased with worry. His hand was resting on her shoulder.

_But he's not draining me..._

_It worked._

_I am... Dead._

"Itsuki..." she breathed.

"How are you feeling?"

"As if I snapped my neck in two," she quipped. She began to sit up, but her head spun and she had to lay back down. Her eyes traveled upwards, and saw that her body was still swinging from the rafters. It was not frightening, but very strange, to see her own corpse as someone else would have seen it, hanging limply from its silken noose. The robes were still open and fluttering in the slight breeze from the window, affording Michiko a look at her own body a mirror could not provide. She pointed up at her lifeless shell. "What is to be done with myself?"

Itsuki shrugged. "I suppose we could cut it down and throw it out of the storehouse. But I cannot leave this cell, and I am unsure if we could move it. If we are unable to move it, I suppose it will just hang there until it rots."

Michiko wrinkled her nose. "Do smells bother us when we are dead?"

"I have never had an issue with it."

"All right."

She tried sitting up again, and this time the vertigo was only minimal. Holding a hand to her head, she managed to stand up and look at Itsuki. "So... What do we do now?"

"I do not know. I suppose we must wait until the Final Sacrifice occurs." He suddenly turned and pointed at a writing desk in the corner. Atop it lay Michiko's half of the pendant, the blue stone still smooth and unscratched, although a little dusty. "I kept your pendant. I wore it alongside my own, everyday, until I got locked in here. I have not touched it since, because I feared you were lost to me." His back was ramrod straight. "It was all I had left of you, Michiko. I did not wish to contaminate it with my touch."

She came up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him. "There is nothing to contaminate, my Itsuki. I am here now, and I will never leave you again. You do not have to cling to a necklace anymore; I am right here."

"But you had to die before you could be with me." He did not accept her embrace, holding himself stiffly against her. "Do you see, Michiko? I am responsible for the deaths of everyone I held dear. The Repentance would not have occured at all, had I kept my mouth closed and allowed the Kurosawas to go through with the ritual. And because I loved you, now you are dead as well. Everything is my fault!"

"That is not true, Itsuki." She squeezed him tighter, laid her cheek against his back. "I am unsure about Sae, but I know Yae was planning on finding her way out of the village and taking her sister with her before the ritual. She did not wish to kill her sister. And my death was by my own hands; I made that decision myself. You are not to blame for that. As for the Repentance, if the priests had simply allowed Sae to follow her sister, and not performed only half the ritual, this would not have occured. Not like this."

"I cannot help feeling guilty, Michiko." He still wouldn't look at her, but he did relax slightly. "I do not think I shall ever be free of that."

"I will be here to help you bear that burden, my Itsuki. And once the Final Sacrifice is over, we shall move on to heaven together. We will see those we cared for in life again...

"Together."

He turned his head to look at her. "Together?"

She nodded, closing her eyes and smiling as he turned around, curling his arms around her and holding her to him. "We shall be together. Forever.

"I promise."


End file.
